
Class I: \^g 



Book 



3 




MARY S. VANDERBILT 



Mary S. Vanderbilt 



A 

Twentieth Century 
Seer 

BY 
M. E. CADWALLADER 



"I have found Spiritualism a good thing to live 
by, and I have come pretty close to finding it a 
good thing to die by." — M. S* Vanderbilt. 



The Progressive Thinker Publishing House 

106 Loomis Street 

Chicago, 111. 



& 



>)3 



03 



Copyright 

M. E. Cadwallader 

1921 



mot roi 

■ 

API ': 12 



*® 27 I9;i 



flDar^ S. Wanberbilt 



"Oh spirit rare ! Who guided us so long, 

Along the rough and stony paths of life 
Who hushed our fears, and taught us right from wrong, 
Who dried our tears, and helped us bear our strife." 

"Speak to us now, and tell us it is best 

That thou shouldst leave us, whom we love so much. 
Help us to bridge the space that lies between, 
And give us strength and faith to feel thy touch." 

"Thou who hast never failed, we miss thee so, 
Lend now thy hand to help us bear the blow. 
Speak out thy message ever clear, that we 

May still, from thee, God's wondrous wisdom know." 

Earl Whitcomb Carter. 

April 30, 1919. Camp Devens, Mass. 



m 



PREFATORY NOTE 

It is fitting to preserve for posterity a record of some 
of the achievements of Mary S. Vanderbilt, but to 
attempt to glean even a tithe of the work of this mar- 
velous medium and seer of the twentieth century would 
mean to give a history of the Spiritualist Movement, so 
closely was she identified with it in New England espe- 
cially, her chosen field. We have had to depend upon 
incomplete transcripts gleaned here and there from the 
newspaper accounts which inadequately record a meagre 
idea of what was accomplished through the mediumship 
of this gifted seer. The preparation of this volume was 
the labor of love — of one to whom the friendship of Mrs. 
Vanderbilt was a rare boon — and whose appreciation of 
her mediumistic gifts was second to none. 

We trust the reader will appreciate the difficulties sur- 
rounding the preparation of this memorial book, collated 
as it was from so many sources. 

May it prove an inspiration to sorrowing hearts as it 
goes forth on its mission of love. 

M. E. Cadwallader. 



VI 



jporeworb 



WHEN THE DAWNING LIGHT OF REASON BREAKS 
UPON US WE SHALL KNOW, THAT IN EVERY 
AGE WE HAVE HAD OUR GREAT TEACHERS 
AND SAVIOURS WHO, LIKE JESUS, GAVE THEIR 
LIVES THAT HUMANITY MIGHT HAVE THE TRUTH, 
AND THROUGH THAT KNOWLEDGE REACH GREATER 
HEIGHTS OF SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT. 

IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE BETWEEN LIGHT AND 
DARKNESS, MARY S. VANDERBILT STOOD AS A 
LIGHTHOUSE, GUIDING SOULS TO THAT HARBOR OF 
TRUTH, WHERE THEY MIGHT FIND THE GLORIOUS 
KNOWLEDGE THAT THEIR LOVED ONES, WHO 
SEEMINGLY HAD DIED, STILL LIVED AND LOVED, 
AND SHE, LIKE ALL GREAT SOULS, LAID HER ALL 
UPON THE ALTAR OF TRUTH. 

IN THE NAME OF THAT GREAT TRUTH WHICH SHE 
TAUGHT, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO ALL HU- 
MANITY, BY ONE TO WHOM SHE OPENED THE GATES 
OF THAT SPIRITUAL WORLD, AND BROUGHT THE 
MESSAGE OF THE ANGELS. 

LOVING SERVICE IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE WOR- 
SHIP, AND LABOR THE ONLY EFFECTIVE PRAYER. 

SINCERELY, 

WARREN R. FALES. 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE 

Mary Scannell Pepper Vanderbilt began her public 
work in 1895, as a bearer of platform messages, but 
since her girlhood she had been holding private test 
seances. Inspirational speaking was an added phase 
of her later development. . Her especial field of activity 
was in New England, but she appeared often in New 
York, Philadelphia and Washington, and at conven- 
tions of the National Spiritualists' Association. A 
conspicuous part of her work at the Spiritualist Camps 
was was executive as well as psychic. Up to the time of 
her transition she had functioned as president of Lake 
Pleasant camp in Massachusetts five years, and ten years 
at Camp Etna in Maine. 

From 1904 until 1906 (inclusive) she officiated in the 
pastorate of the First Spiritual Church of Brooklyn. 
Late in 1906, by request of the Czar, she went to Russia 
and held several seances with the imperial family, and 
afterward appeared in several European capitals. 

In 1907 she became the wife of Edward W. Vander- 
bilt. This marriage was a happy one. 

With the sympathy and co-operation of her husband 
and the mental relaxation which the sanctuary of the 
home life afforded her, Mrs. Vanderbilt was enabled to 
carry her unfoldment to a point even further than she 
had hitherto done. The last years of her life testified to 
the enhancement of her gifts, not to their wanings. She 
identified herself more effectively than ever with camp 
work. 

Her final illness was brief. She passed out April 27, 
1919, in Boston, Massachusetts, after an operation that 
failed to counteract the conditions. In accordance with 
her request, her ashes were interred at Camp Etna. 



vn 



Mary S. Vanderbilt 

CHAPTER I. 
DAWNING MEDIUMSHIP 

In the evolution of the race toward a higher state there 
comes to us, in hours of greatest need, someone who, out 
of life's seeming darkness, shines forth among his fellow 
men as a prophet of a new dispensation. 

For ages, man sought to come into communication with 
invisible, mysterious forces, beyond his power to com- 
mand or comprehend. The history of civilization is 
marked by spiritual phenomena, but it was left for 
Modern Spiritualism to give the world a conscious knowl- 
edge of the spirit world and its inhabitants through the 
seers of modern times. 

Andrew Jackson Davis is recognized as the John the 
Baptist of Modern Spiritualism. Since ''the Rochester 
rappings" in the Hydesville cottage on March 31, 1848, 
through the mediumship of the Fox Sisters, many media 
have given proof of the stupendous message, "There are 
no dead" ; but of all these there was none who in the de- 
velopment of mediumship surpassed Mary S. Vanderbilt. 

On May 7, 1867, in a community called "Happy 
Hollow," in West Mansfield, Mass., a girl child was born 
to Richard and Bridget Scannell. Did the little one, then 
first gazing into this life, give any token of the strenuous 
career she was to follow, blazing the way for others? 
Was there one who dreamed that the child in that cradle 
was destined to be a Revealer, a Prophet and a Seer? 



2 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Many of us, if we could peer into the future, would 
shrink from taking up the cross and following the vision. 
Could that little one have been vouchsafed a knowledge 
of her future, well might she have cried out, "Father, 
let this cup pass from me!" 

Ralph Waldo Emerson says that every talent some- 
where reaches its apotheses. This is a truth, but it is 
stated in cloudy terms. For talent is an instrument 
through which a power is expressed, and power itself 
is only an attribute of faculty, which in turn is an at- 
tribute of the soul ; and back of the soul is the spirit, the 
part that cannot die, that must go on forever. It is 
Spirit that maintains eternal contact with the universe 
of reality, but often enough the instrument, in its earlier 
time of use, is hard to bring into fluent melody. It was 
so with Mary Pepper Vanderbilt when first her powers 
began to urge for expression, while yet she was a child. 
But what a full and flowing harmony her later years 
poured forth! 

Since in our western civilization psychic powers have 
as yet been given slight culture, it cannot be claimed that 
modern psychical manifestation has been brought to com- 
pletion ; but in the development of her mental medium- 
ship Mary Pepper Vanderbilt reached a place high up 
along — 

The world's great altar stairs, 

That slope through darkness toward God. 

To honor her achievements is to choose a garland 
more significant than could be bestowed for a like pro- 
gression in any other human possibility; for her upward 
course followed a trail not only disapproved, but actually 
condemned. A hard trail to travel, which called for a 
degree of perseverance greater and more determined 
than that required for triumphant effort in any industry 
or art. Her unwavering resolution might rather be 
likened to that of a great leader, a standard bearer, a 
pioneer. 



DAWNING MEDIUMSHIP 3 

West Mansfield was (and is) a small place, dating 
back to early colonial days. The people there still 
retain the colonial state of mind, especially in matters 
touching religion — the parochial mind, narrow, hard, cling- 
ing to outworn creeds, to shriveled ethics, rigidly shutting- 
its eyes to any new light, hostile to all evidence of the 
truth that they themselves proclaimed by rote but could 
not prove — that man must die, but spirit is immortal. 

No thought touching Spiritualism lit the religious 
ideas of her parents. The influence of Romanism and 
Methodism was present, but only insofar as it could 
find its way through the interstices of workaday lives. 
Then, when she was barely past babyhood, came an event 
that had potent effect upon her spiritual future. The 
mother of the family was summoned to the life beyond. 

Those reading these lines, who already are Spiritual- 
ists, need not be reminded that upon release from the 
bonds of flesh, affection revives and expands ; that loving 
thoughts entwine between us and our so-called dead; 
that they bring us closer to a plane of higher expression, 
so that we are at times prepared to receive, along these 
tendrils, some vibratory, conscious thrill from the heights. 
So when this New England child, early deprived of the 
physical presence of her best friend, began in timid 
bewilderment to contact the realization of spirit com- 
munion, her arisen mother was one of the first to irach 
across the sundering interval. 

An aunt had taken the little girl into her care; and 
childhood years passed by. Her first great psychic ex- 
perience came when she was fifteen. 

With her foster-mother she had gone to visit friends 
at Narragansett. The fact that these people were Spirit- 
ualists was unknown to them. No allusion to it was 
made until after the occurrence which first indicated that 
she had mediumistic power. A newspaper interview in 
The Lewiston Journal in 1908 gives her own account 
of what then took place : 



4 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"I had retired, but still was wide awake. I became 
aware of a human form in the room, near the bed. . . . 
There was something about it that differed from the 
persons I knew . . . and I screamed. 

"When I described the person I had seen, the family 
there said I had described one of their relatives, who had 
died — a person I never had seen, nor even heard of." 

The members of this household were accustomed to 
receiving spirit messages by means of table-tipping. 
They knew no other way. 

They had not long been seated around the table when 
tremulously, hesitatingly, yet clearly, the name of Mary's 
mother was spelled out, letter by letter. Thus it was 
made out that the spirit of a little Indian girl, Bright 
Eyes, desired to control her. The spirit requested that 
Mary remain in that home three months, to receive de- 
velopment. 

All this was incomprehensible and unwelcome — to the 
young prospective medium. The idea failed to impress 
her. Farther, she vigorously declared she would not 
remain one hour beyond the time when her aunt must 
leave for home. 

The Society for Psychical Research once gave its 
opinion that of all the people not more than one-fourth 
of one per cent, that is, one individual out of each four 
hundred, receive definite psychic manifestations ; and 
this opinion was derived from a broad and comprehensive 
survey. But whether psychic faculty comes to the sur- 
face with many or with few, it is certain that in rare 
instances spirit co-operation does at times impart psychic 
impulses toward unusual psychic activity, often invol- 
untary, quite apart from the individual's conscious in- 
tent or desire. Thus when the time came for the aunt 
to leave the house where Mary had her startling vision 
of a spirit, Mary herself, in the face of her former 
obstinacy, could not be persuaded to go. She remained 



DAWNING MEDIUMSHIP 5 

there three months, just as the spirit guides had asked, 
held by some vague but unescapable compulsion — pressed 
into service by the spirit forces. There was no exhibi- 
tion of poltergeist power — no violent demonstration of 
an external will. Psychical science holds no more likable 
record of kindly spirit persuasion and guidance. 

Nor do the annals of psychic accomplishment any- 
where offer a spirit control more remarkable than the 
Indian child, Bright Eyes — inseparable from her chosen 
instrument through thirty-four years, constant in service 
from her first manifestation to the close of Mrs. Van- 
derbilt's earth life, and thought of whenever Mrs. Van- 
derbilt's name is mentioned. Mediumship is always the 
result of concerted action by a number of spirits, some 
of them reserving the right to obscurity, preferring to 
operate unnamed or even unannounced. That Bright 
Eyes was so assisted, there is no doubt or question; but 
Bright Eyes herself, not far removed nor long gone from 
physical conditions, was able to meet and to deal under- 
standingly with earthly ambitions, longings, fears, heart- 
aches; to bring from more advanced souls in calmer 
realms, some touch of solace into the stir and sorrows of 
earth. 

During her girlhood, Mary Scannell's psychic devel- 
opment was comparatively slow. School occupied her 
attention, home duties intervened. When she reached 
womanhood, she took employment at a neighboring 
farmhouse, where she aided in domestic tasks. In that 
part of the country this involved no social derogation then, 
nor would it now. In later life, when fame brought 
laurels, when wedded happiness became her portion, 
when affluence sheltered and royalty sought her, she was 
not ashamed to speak of the occupations of those hum- 
bler days. Nor did she ever attempt to conceal the fact 
that her first marriage — with George Pepper — resulted 
so unfortunately that she found herself obliged to divorce 
him. Bearing the name of one who might have dragged 



6 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

her down, she raised it into wide renown among all who 
are sufficiently evolved to realize how high is the station 
of those who demonstrate the truth of spirit communion, 
that supreme blessing in the gift of Infinite Wisdom. 

Through all those uphill earlier years the band of 
spirit workers remained faithful, Bright Eyes continuing 
as the best known control. During this term the little 
Indian spirit was merely an untaught child. In the first 
six years of mediumship no platform work was under- 
taken, though private seances and tests were attempted. 
When her first public seances were given, the messages 
were voiced in what a newspaper account described as 
"a curious dialect, half African, half Indian, and wholly 
ungrammatical, but spoken with great fluency. 'You 
squaw in de corner,' she would say, 'I know you wants 
I to speak to you awful bad. You don't feel half as 
shiny as you pretends you does,' which meant that the 
woman addressed concealed some secret care." 

In order to perfect the manner of Bright Eyes' de- 
livery, ex-Judge Abram H. Dailey, formerly of the 
Surrogate Court of New York, lent his efforts. For a 
considerable time he had Mrs. Pepper keep appointed 
hours at his offices, upon which occasions the attempt 
was made to aid the spirit control in shaping grammat- 
ical sentences of well pronounced words. That the as- 
sistance of this generous hearted and scholarly man was 
effective is indicated by the fact that in later years Mrs. 
Pepper's platform utterances were not only free from 
jargon, but were formed in flawless English. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt had another valuable helper who per- 
formed the office, also of a kind and beneficent father — 
Dr. H. B. Storer. He often served as the antidote to 
harmonize the discords which sometimes fall to the lot 
of the spiritual worker, when those whom she seeks to 
uplift turn and rend her. The world always stones its 
prophets and crucifies its saviors. 



DAWNING MEDIUMSHIP 7 

Dr. Storer lived a long and exemplary life while his 
kind deeds and inestimable assistance to the beginners in 
our ranks as to the experienced workers, also richly 
blessed Mrs. Vanderbilt. He was a deep scholar, a fine 
orator and lived his religion of Spiritualism. For many 
years he was the highly esteemed president of Onset 
Camp, and was also deeply interested in the camp at 
Harwich. In gratitude for all she had received from 
him, Mrs. Vanderbilt said, on one occasion, that she 
should always officiate at Harwich every season, while 
she lived, a promise which she strictly fulfilled. 

It was evidently a part of the divine plan that these 
two stalwart gifted men, on both the legal and spiritual 
planes, should be raised up to better fit this brilliant but 
untrained woman in her worthy efforts to comfort, in- 
struct and uplift the world. Dr. Storer well deserves a 
longer, fuller tribute, but we are only now considering 
his share in the success and power of the life record of 
this gifted soul. 

Bright Eyes as a personality possessed exceptional 
interest because she was able to identify herself in the 
memory of so many people. Living to about the age of 
ten or twelve years, she had been taken about in the 
West by her parents, who were Kickapoo Indians, and 
she had met many travelers. 

When she had been serving as Mrs. Pepper's control 
possibly a dozen years, she w T as given an opportunity to 
prove her identity in a manner probably unsurpassed in 
the history of Spiritualism. 

During a public seance in New Bedford, a man in 
the audience, a disbeliever in Spiritualism, who had been 
induced to attend the meeting somewhat against his in- 
clination, was greeted by Bright Eyes as a former ac- 
quaintance. 

"Why, hello, Mr. So-and-So," called she, in evident 
delight. 

The individual so addressed declared that he knew 



8 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

nothing about the spirit. Bright Eyes was not to be thus 
deterred. 

"Yes, you do," she insisted. "You got my picture — 
you took my picture — " and she proceeded to give details 
as to how and when, away out West, this gentleman 
(who was a photographer) had taken the picture of 
herself, a small Indian girl. 

The photographer upon his return home searched 
through his negatives. To his amazement and conversion, 
he found the one which Bright Eyes had indicated! 

Perhaps there was no treasure dearer to Mrs. Vander- 
bilt than the little photograph, developed from that neg- 
ative, which the photographer presented to her and which 
she wore in a locket. All the facts in this wonderful 
test of spirit identity were easily verifiable. Elizabeth 
Harlow Goetz, the well-known lecturer upon Spiritual- 
ism, relates that she was present as a speaker at the New 
Bedford meeting when Bright Eyes discovered in the 
audience the photographer who, years before and in a 
distant part of the country, had taken her picture. 

Mrs. Goetz, from 1895 to 1898, was closely associated 
with Mrs. Pepper, giving inspirational lectures at which 
Mrs. Pepper delivered platform messages in many cities 
of New England. She relates a story of how when the 
two were filling an engagement in Boston, they lost their 
way in the streets — those streets which simply overlay 
the original cow-paths worn in the days of early settle- 
ment. Probably everyone who has visited Boston has 
been similarly confused, but these two bewildered ones 
had no need to seek assistance from mortals. Bright 
Eyes took the case in hand, and directed them safely to 
the house where they were stopping — a manifestation 
deeply impressed upon Mrs. Goetz's memory. 

The message-bearing work of Mrs. Pepper antedated 
by a number of years her inspirational speaking, the 
latter phase naturally proceeding from the influence of 
different controlling mentalities. The following remin- 




BRIGHT EYES 



DAWNING MEDIUMSHIP 9 

iscence, illustrating the early longing of this medium for 
the success in oratory which she later achieved, is quoted 
from an article by Mrs. Mary T. Longley, as printed in 
The Progressive Thinker, July 19, 1919: 

"Knowing her well in her very first days of spiritual 
work, I realized even in that early time that she pos- 
sessed wonderful powers of mediumship and of useful- 
ness to the world. Like all newcomers and fledglings in 
mediumship, she had moments of depression concerning 
her calling and her gifts, and it was the part of some of 
the older workers to soothe, encourage and revivify her 
drooping spirits by their words of approval and prophecy 
of her work. 

"I remember on one occasion, on a Sunday at Lake 
Pleasant, a group of us were gathered at a hotel dining 
table, chatting in friendliness. May seemed much per- 
turbed over the prospect of her appearance on the plat- 
form at the afternoon service. We had just listened to 
a grand lecture by one of the noted speakers of the time, 
and this simple, sensitive girl felt that her work of the 
day would be entirely overshadowed because of what 
had gone before. We assured her that she would fill 
her part gloriously, and that her splendid message work 
— of which the public never could get enough — was far 
more likely to eclipse the discourses in the public eye 
than the contrary. 

"Comforted a bit, she said she would be satisfied if 
she could only be influenced by good spirits to lecture on 
the platform instead of being just a medium. At this 
juncture Mrs. Carrie L. Hatch, of Boston, spoke in a con- 
vincing voice, saying: 'May, don't worry. The time 
will come, and in a very few years, when your guides 
will be giving good lectures through your organism, on 
the platform here and in many places, and you will give 
messages too.' 



10 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

" 'Oh, no/ said May, 'I am not the kind of medium for 
lecture work.' 

" 'You are, and I know you will be in it some day, 
and not lose your other powers either/ asserted Mrs. 
Hatch. 

"We all felt convinced the prediction would be verified, 
as it was later, under the guidance of her spirit band 
and with the encouragement and help of Judge Dailey, 
of Brooklyn, who believed in her possibilities of inspir- 
ation, and that they could be developed." 



CHAPTER II. 

IN MANY FIELDS 

The message work of Mary Vanderbilt at all times 
possessed certain outstanding attributes: concise, spark- 
ling, pointed, an undercurrent of kindliness forever 
streamed beneath it. Bright Eyes spoke her way into 
people's affections; other spirit guides inspired the me- 
dium through addresses and lectures to enkindle their 
intellects. New England was the especial acreage for the 
sowing of this spiritual as seed. In every town within 
its boundaries can be found those who think of Mary 
Vanderbilt as one who touched their gray lives with 
dawn, and cleared and clouded waters of their souls into 
crystal. 

Beyond the borders of this home country, however, she 
often carried the colors of Spiritualism. At its yearly 
conventions the National Spiritualists' Association was 
proud to enlist such mediumship as hers as representative 
of the loftiest ideals of its organization. During the 
presidency of Harrison D. Barrett, this Association ap- 
pointed Mrs. Pepper as one of its State agents to promote 
the best interests of true Spiritualism. 

Time and again she served great crowds in the city of 
New York. The people of Washington were privileged 
to listen to her demonstrations. Her effective meetings, 
under the auspices of the First Spiritual Church of 
Brooklyn, are particularized herein in a subsequent chap- 
ter. Crowned heads summoned her from foreign lands. 

11 



12 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

But from such excursions afar, Mary Vanderbilt re- 
turned to favor New England with her efforts. Even 
when in later life the city of Brooklyn became her place 
of residence, she had no idea of circumscribing her sphere 
to include Brooklyn alone; the opportunity to seclude 
herself in luxury, which came to her with her second mar- 
riage, did not deter her from going steadily forward with 
her public work; and she did not neglect her beioved' 
New England. 

To chronicle completely her activities from the com- 
mencement of her platform work, is not possible. Here 
a newspaper account, brought out under impulse of her 
gift — yonder a letter, bespeaking a gratitude deeper than 
gold can repay or demand — such have been chosen for 
presentation here, to indicate in some measure the harvest 
of her middle years. 

The appended letter bears a New York headline, dated 
1898: 

"Believing it is a duty I owe to myself and to you, as 
well as to those in search of spiritual truth, I send you a 
written statement of the fulfillment of a very remarkable 
prophecy Bright Eyes made for me when you were here 
last spring at Judge Dailey's. 

"I have for many years been engaged in mercantile 
trade in New York without even a reasonable hope of 
making a radical change, but you told me that before this 
year was out I would be engaged in the life insurance 
business. 

"I certainly did not think it possible that such could be 
the case. I plainly told Bright Eyes she was surely mis- 
taken. She said to me, 'You wait and see/ and greatly 
to my surprise this is the third week I have been engaged 
in a very new enterprise — life insurance — and I have 
been successful also, as you told me it would be from 
the start. 



IN MANY FIELDS 13 

"I desire to say that you are the first and only person I 
have ever known to foretell so perfectly the coming of 
such an unexpected event. Other things of very great 
interest to me you have foretold with equal correctness, 
so that it seems absolutely certain to me that your spirit 
control can not only see and reveal to us the past and 
present of our lives but the future as well. 

"I am all the more astonished from the fact that even 
now you personally know nothing of me of the business 
I have been engaged in for the greater part of my life. 

"All the world should know you and bless you for the 
revelation you would bring to them ; for without medium- 
ship we are in absolute darkness regarding the future 
life, a belief which ia> sustained by faith alone from the 
dark ages down to the present day — no proof without 
Spiritualism. 

"I thank you most sincerely for the unveiling of this 
truth." 

In the same year, 1898, an address, delivered by Mrs. 
Pepper before the Haverhill (Massachusetts) Spiritual- 
ists' Union, was deemed worthy of quotation by the press : 

"Spiritualism has outridden the gale of popular opinion, 
the clouds overhead are broken, and the dawn of a yet 
brighter day gladdens our souls. The glorious hope of 
immortality — the never-dying faith which animates the 
heart, that we possess individuality which shall never die, 
awakens courage, gives energy to character, and even vic- 
tory over the conqueror, death. 

"Though we may weep for the dead, let us salute the 
immortal; having become invisible in one existence, they 
become resplendent in another. As we mourn the loss of 
friends, so they rejoice in opportunities of reunion. The 
day will come when they shall visit every fireside, hold 
converse with us, and sit at our table on our sacred 
anniversaries. 



14 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"In the influence of the bright memories of our early 
defenders, and spurred on by their exalted example, may 
we be lifted to the mount of transfiguration, where, com- 
muning with their spirits, we may discern the sublime 
grandeur of the mighty truth of Spiritualism, for which 
they lived and labored." 

Elizabeth F. Kurth, President of The Woman's Pro- 
gressive Union, Brooklyn, New York, in 1903, thus 
expressed herself regarding Mrs. Pepper's qualifications : 

"As to reading the sealed letters placed upon the plat- 
form, this type of mediumship must carry weight with 
the most thick-skinned skeptic. In some cases two or 
three envelopes enfold the communications. She gives 
full names, locations, and often the innermost thoughts 
of those to whom the guides take her — all of this with a 
feeling of surety. 

"Ten years ago May Pepper was considered a very 
good platform test medium; five years ago she was con- 
sidered remarkable; today she stands as the peer of all 
demonstrators of spiritual phenomena." 

At Lyric Hall, Boston, Mrs. Pepper must have ap- 
pealed to the sense of justice on the part of a reporter, 
so fair-minded is his write-up: 

"Judging from appearances, there is nothing unhealthy 
about a medium's occupation. All of the mediums pres- 
ent were remarkably strong and vigorous looking women. 
Mrs. Pepper, of Providence, is a particularly large woman 
with a beautifully modulated voice which she uses on 
occasion with dramatic effect. 

"The reporter, endeavoring to find out facts from some 
of the people who received messages, heard this from a 
woman: 'I am not a Spiritualist; I merely happened to 
be passing, and dropped in. What Mrs. Pepper dis- 



IN MANY FIELDS 15 

closed was known only to me. She gave my name, and 
the name of my husband, from whom the message came/ 
"After the meeting the reporter approached Mrs. Pep- 
per. She gave him a personal test, not in the same man- 
ner of certainty she had used when reading the sealed 
letters, but by asking him if one thing and another was 
not a fact. With one exception the statements were re- 
markably correct." 

In Lynn, Massachusetts, during a month's engagement, 
it became necessary to turn away hundreds from the 
services. That the crowds flocking to hear her some- 
times surprised the medium herself, is indicated by the 
following reminiscence, related by Mary Drake Jenne, 
secretary of the Maine State Spiritualists' Association : 

"In 1909 it was my privilege to journey to Dover and 
Foxcroft with this illustrious woman, she having been 
engaged to serve the First Piscataqua Spiritualist Society. 
The management secured Central Hall, the largest in the 
two towns, and at first it was thought best not to use the 
two galleries. However, the crowd poured in, and they 
were obliged to open every available bit of seating room. 
Mrs. Vanderbilt herself grew nervous as she watched 
the people pouring in, and finally remarked, Tt's no use; 
you never can keep a crowd like that quiet, with so many 
young people.' 

"But no sooner had she taken her place upon the plat- 
form than a hush fell upon the assembly, and all through 
the long service, consisting of a lecture and message ser- 
vice, she was listened to with the most rapt attention." 

Will J. Maynard, in 1905, described one of the excel- 
lent tests received at Somerville, Connecticut, which he 
himself took pains to verify : 

"Mrs. K., of Somerville, Connecticut, though skep- 
tical in mind, attended a meeting and seance conducted by 



16 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

May S. Pepper, and placed upon the table a ballot asking 
information regarding lost papers. 

"After describing Mrs. K.'s husband, who had met 
death by accident, the medium alluded to papers which 
had been lost. Mrs. Pepper, I know, never had been in 
the village of Somerville before, and never had been in 
the section where Mrs. K. lived. However, the medium 
described the house, and the rooms upstairs. She said, 
'I see an old-fashioned chest. If you will go to this and 
take out the drawers, in the back of one you will find the 
papers you have looked for.' 

"Mrs. K. found the papers in this place, just as Mrs. 
Pepper had told her. 

"Knowing of the circumstances and being interested, I 
called upon Mrs. K. and was shown the room and chest 
where the papers were found." 



CHAPTER III. 
RECOGNITION 

Faithfully, constantly, in patience, but with ever-in- 
creasing power, Mrs. Pepper had built upon her talents 
through girlhood days and during a ten-year period of 
young womanhood, becoming better and better known 
throughout her native New England. Then, at the ar- 
rival of the twentieth century, her name came to be 
spoken as that of one of the foremost psychics in the 
world. On both sides of the Atlantic was she honored. 

One of the distinguished people willing to publicly 
acknowledge a debt of gratitude to her was Dr. Isaac K. 
Funk, head of the publishing firm of Funk and Wagnalls. 
Notwithstanding his far-reaching business enterprise, 
Doctor Funk found time to consider evidences offered in 
proof of continuous life. A number of his letters to Mrs. 
Pepper are in her files. Never in any of these was there 
indication of a wish to seek for personal advantage, nor 
for any information of moment to himself alone. Ex- 
cerpts from this correspondence will convey to the 
reader the unselfish attitude of Doctor Funk toward these 
matters : 

Publishing House of Funk & Wagnalls 
Editorial Rooms of the Standard Dictionary 

New York, April 15, 1903 
I am very desirous of reaching a definite conclu- 
sion as to the possibility of identifying spirits in their 

17 



18 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

communication. Your friend, Judge Dailey, has kindly 
suggested that you might be willing to give such a sitting. 

New York, Oct. 26, 1904 
I take pleasure in sending you a copy of my book, The 
Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena. You will 
find, beginning with page 218, I make reference to some 
experiments I had with a medium whom I call Mrs. A. 
This experience was with yourself. The readings by 
yourself are remarkably accurate. 

4 
New York, Feb. 16, 1905 
I want to thank you again for your courtesy in allow- 
ing me the privilege you did last Sunday evening. Your 
handing to me the letters which you read at Sunday 
evening services, serves a very good purpose, as the 
people come up to me for the letters, and I can get their 
names and addresses. This will give more weight to 
the experiments with the public throughout the country. 
The important thing to keep in mind is not the thousand 
people who are in the building, but the millions of people 
throughout the country, and in fact throughout the world, 
who read the newspaper reports. 

New York, Feb. 20, 1906 
I wish I could get more cases worked up in a system- 
atic way with you, which I could give. I have now used 
publicly all the effective ones I had of yours; that is, 
those that will carry weight with the outside public. I 
think little by little the public is being educated to the 
fact that there is something in this, and is becoming more 
willing to give "ghosts" a chance. 

Doctor Funk was active in his efforts to advance pop- 
ular knowledge of Spiritualism. His ready pen contrib- 
uted effectively to its literature. While in his two 
published books he refrained from openly stating that 



RECOGNITION 19 

he held spirit communication to be a fact, in a newspaper 
interview appearing shortly after the publication of The 
Widow's Mite, he made no attempt to screen his views. 
His words at that time, in strong praise of the work of 
Mrs. Peppei, are here quoted: 

"Mrs. Pepper has given me many readings during the 
past decade, in which I have never once had an inaccurate 
statement made to me. I have submitted her to many 
tests that would disprove the theory of telepathy in her 
accomplishments. I want to say, and repeat many times, 
and as emphatically as possible, that I know Mrs. Pepper 
to be perfectly honest and honorable and above any form 
of deceit. Having studied her work for many years I 
thoroughly believe that what she does can only be ex- 
plained by the argument of Spiritualism — spirit forces 
acting through her. 

"Mrs. Pepper's prayers are the most beautiful, really 
poetic supplications possible to hear or to conceive. Her 
sermons are helpful discourses that would lead men to 
live right lives if followed out. 

"Hundreds of people go to hear Mrs. Pepper out of 
curiosity. Hundreds go to ridicule. Meanwhile she 
keeps right on with her work, and scores are compelled 
to embrace Spiritualism because of what they actually are 
told." 

Again, in the New York Herald, Sunday, November 
12, 1905, appeared an article by Doctor Funk on "Spirit- 
ualism," in which he chose to cite a noteworthy message. 

"A case of unusual interest was brought to my atten- 
tion. A boy at the age of two years lost his mother, and 
his father wandered away. He had reached the age of 
twenty-nine years when he attended one of Mrs. Pepper's 
meetings, and sent a communication to his mother, asking 



20 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

for the address of his father. Mrs. Pepper gave an ad- 
dress in London, to which he wrote. The firm there 
answered that such a man had been in their employ, but 
had left three years before to go to Glasgow. The young 
man sent a letter addressed to his father in Glasgow, to 
which he received a reply. I investigated this case my- 
self and am thoroughly convinced there was no collusion." 

In 1907, Doctor Funk brought out his book, The 
Psychic Riddle. In it he included (page 172) the fol- 
lowing piquant account of a test of Mrs. Pepper's me- 
diumship : 

"A gentleman who w r as connected with the University 
of Chicago, and who was a fellow in Semitics in the 
University, a clergyman, editor and teacher, with forty 
years behind him to back his discretion, sent me a sealed 
letter which he desired me to submit to a medium as a 
test. Receiving very many such requests, I threw the 
letter into a pigeon hole, with a little slip pinned to it 
showing from whom it came. 

"One evening after returning home I made up my 
mind to visit Mrs. Pepper with an envelope which I my- 
self had prepared. It occurred to me to take also some 
envelopes I had received. It was so dark in my study 
that I could not distinguish the envelopes, so I took one 
from the pigeon hole and unpinned the little identification 
slip and threw the slip on my study table. In my dress- 
ing room I saw that this envelope had no writing what- 
ever on it, but had in each corner two faint pencil marks, 
and that the flap of the envelope, though sealed, was not 
protected with sealing wax. Where the four flaps of the 
envelope overlapped I dropped heated sealing wax, stamp- 
ing it with a seal. 

"I could not find out from whom this envelope came, 
although I tested it by microscope and bright light, and 
I did not know anything about what was in it. Entering 



RECOGNITION 21 

Mrs. Pepper's house I took my seat alongside the table, 
on which I placed my two envelopes. The second enve- 
lope the medium selected was the one I had taken from 
my pigeon hole and sealed before leaving home. 

"The medium at once said, T hear the name Horacum 
or Horaca (all the names I give are fictitious, but the 
real names are as strange as those I give here), and I 
hear "Pearl, Pearl; whose letter is this?" (There 
were fifteen or twenty persons in the room and nearly 
every one had placed a letter on the table. ) I said, "It is 
mine," recognizing it by the seal. "Well, who is Pearl?" 
I said, "I do not know. Is Pearl the name of a person?" 
"No," after a moment's hesitation; "it is not the name 
of a person." Mother Horacum says, "Tell Eton that the 
pearl breastpin was not stolen; it was lost." You do 
not know what is in this letter. The man who sent you 
this letter is named Eton, and he lives in the west. This 
letter is addressed to a spirit named Horacum or Horaca, 
and was sent you by a man named Wilton.' After 
awhile the medium told me the name of the man was 
Eton Wilton, which I found to be correct on my return 
home, when I looked at the writing on the identification 
slip thrown on my desk. Without opening the letter I 
returned it to Mr. Wilton at the University of Chicago." 

In reply, Wilton wrote me as follows : 

"Mrs. Horacus, an old schoolmate of mine, died four- 
teen or fifteen years ago, leaving one little daughter. I 
have never seen the latter, nor communicated with her. 
She lives a thousand miles from Chicago. Last fall this 
daughter visited an aunt — unknown to me. I do not 
even know her name — and was presented with a beautiful 
pearl pin. Shortly after she returned home the pin was 
missing. 

"Recently a relative of hers mentioned the above facts 
in a letter to me, and jocularly suggested that I find the 
pin, knowing I was making some psychic investigations. 
I have not written to this person since. 



22 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"I concluded to try an experiment through you. You 
did not know what the sealed question was. Ordinary 
mind reading, or subconscious mind, would be pretty well 
excluded. The sealed note was written on hard paper 
folded so that the writing was inside. Two thicknesses 
of paper were between it and the envelope. The writing 
was partly in colored ink, partly in copying pencil, not 
moistened, and written lightly so as to appear like ordi- 
nary pencil writing. Any moisture would bring out the 
real color of the copying pencil, and excess moisture 
would dissolve it. A thin strip of white tissue was passed 
through the folded note, the two ends glued to the enve- 
lope. Had the envelope been opened, the tissue would 
have been broken. As the tissue had been treated with a 
chemical, if anyone had replaced or duplicated the tissue 
strip I could tell by a simple test that this had been done. 
On the inside flap of the envelope was writing in dry 
copying pencil just above the gum, where it would have 
been reached by any liquid that might be put upon it to 
unseal the envelope or make it possible to read the writing 
inside. 

"The question I asked Mrs. Horacus, read : 'Your 
daughter has lost a beautiful pearl pin, recently given 
her by her aunt. Can you tell her where it is?' 

"Mrs. Pepper correctly obtained the name of the 
mother, entirely unknown to Mr. Funk, and the fact that 
the question concerned a lost pearl pin. Since she went 
no further than to arrive at the contents of the envelope 
without having opened it under test conditions, the con- 
clusion reached was that she exhibited clairvoyance out- 
side of any explanation that mind-reading or subconscious 
influence could have entered into the test. The writer of 
the letter had told no one that he intended submitting such 
a question. Mrs. Pepper therefore proved that she or 
her controls read the sealed letter. Since she did not 
locate the pin in this instance the practical result was 
ineffective." 



RECOGNITION 23 

Frequently, however, Bright Eyes was entirely suc- 
cessful in locating lost articles definitely. A letter, dated 
at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1904, states: 

"I wanted you to know I found the lost ring just as 
you said you saw it. You said it was 'near something 
red/ I had a bunch of red berries over it." 

In all his wide experience with psychic phenomena, 
presumably the most precious evidence Doctor Funk ever 
received came through the instrumentality of Mrs. Pep- 
per. The story of this has been retold by Lilian Whiting, 
in The Progressive Thinker, February 16, 1907 : 

"I enclosed a letter to my mother in an envelope ad- 
dressed on the outside with an initial, and on the inside 
with the word 'Mother/ and had it put on the desk after 
Mrs. Pepper was on the platform. 

"My mother died forty years before that time in the 
west, and it is very unlikely that outside of my family 
anyone in Brooklyn knew her name or what caused her 
death. 

"There was only one cnance in some hundreds that Mrs. 
Pepper would happen to seize upon my letter, but picking 
it up, she immediately spoke my mother's first name (not 
contained in the envelope), and described her by a num- 
ber of trifling but none the less important details of ap- 
pearance. She said that, curiously, my mother seemed to 
walk as if using but one foot. Mrs. Pepper then inquired 
if I knew why she walked in this way. I asked, 'Can't 
she tell me ?' In a moment Mrs. Pepper said my mother 
asked if I did not remember 'that needle/ 

"The fact was, when I was a young man, my mother 
stepped off a chair and ran a needle into her foot. The 
needle had been sticking in the floor, point downward, so 
that the eye-end of it had punctured her thin slipper and 
run so far into the foot that in order to remove it I used 
a pair of pincers. Paralysis of the foot and limb followed 
and in a week she was dead. 



24 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"The question in my letter was, 'Will mother tell me 
what caused her death?' Mind reading might explain an 
incident of this kind, but evidence of the sure possession 
even of that power is exceedingly interesting. 

"The next statement Mrs. Pepper made was that my 
mother was not alone, that she had by her side a boy 
child whom she called Chester, and said he was her grand- 
child. I did not remember any grandchild of the name 
of Chester, either dead or alive, and went away from the 
church that night with the opinion that this alleged child, 
Chester, was merely one of the unaccountable vagaries 
which frequently obtrude themselves into otherwise ac- 
curate phenomena. 

"Bui I was mistaken. Making inquiry among mem- 
bers of my family, I learned that my mother did have a 
grandchild named Chester who had died in infancy about 
twenty years previously, in the west. This accounted for 
the fact that his identity was not recognized by me." 

Dr. Edwin F. Bowers, widely known as an author of 
books and magazine articles on hygiene, was another dis- 
tinguished patron of Mrs. Vanderbilt. In a newspaper 
article, in 1912, he thus expressed himself : 

"For many years I have been a student and investi- 
gator of that most interesting and fascinating of all sci- 
ences — psychic phenomena. I am tolerably familiar with 
the writings on the subject and have had some experience 
with the manifestations of Spiritism. 

"The most convincing and irrefutable knowledge of 
these matters, however, has come to me through the mar- 
velous psychic, Mary Vanderbilt. 

"This remarkable woman is pastor of the First Spiritual 
Church of Brooklyn, and there she speaks inspirationally 
upon themes suggested off-hand by members of her audi- 
ence. This is quite the best thing in impromptu speaking 



RECOGNITION 25 

I ever have heard. It is in her message work, though, 
that she presents evidence which in the annals of psychic 
research has not been surpassed. I have heard her give 
hundreds of messages — some of them most intricate and 
complicated in character — and I have yet to hear where 
she has erred. 

"On several occasions Mrs. Vanderbilt has given me 
vivid and intimate messages from a brother who passed 
out a year or more ago. In part the information relating 
to his affairs was of such a nature that its significance and 
accuracy could only be determined after correspondence 
with friends back home. 

"I hold Mrs. Mary Vanderbilt in the highest possible 
esteem as a dear friend, an honest and truthful psychic, 
and a woman who is doing a wonderful work in bringing 
help and comfort and a definite assurance of the con- 
tinuity of life beyond the grave, to this gray old world." 

Another person indebted to Mrs. Pepper's qualifica- 
tions at this time was S. B. Robertson, manager of a 
publishing house in New York City. Having purchased 
from a former partner the latter's interest in this pub- 
lishing concern. Mr. Robertson thus acquired two large 
safes, with the combinations in cipher. Not long after- 
ward, the man from whom he had bought the safes died ; 
and to Mr. Robertson's dismay it was found that one of 
the safes could not be opened. 

With the aid of her spirit assistants, Mrs. Pepper came 
into communication with the former owner of the safes. 
Explaining that -a cog was loose on the inside of the re- 
fractory lock, this spirit gave instructions which enabled 
Mr. Robertson to open it. 

That test would seem to comply with all requirements, 
an honest skeptic might impose. The experience was that 
of a competent business man, of dependable word; the 
information supplied was of practical value (in counter- 
claim to the cry that vaporings and not useful facts are 
dealt forth by spirits) ; the knowledge was outside the 



26 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

possibilities of subconscious mind; and the purport of the 
message could not be called evil. The single loophole left 
for an antagonist would be the assertion that emissaries 
of Satan at times send excellent messages to lead people 
toward Spiritualism and apart from orthodoxy. If think- 
ing beings prefer this last explanation, they are welcome 
to it. 

It was about the year 1906 when Mrs. Pepper received 
a letter from a literary member of the royal family of 
Russia. In the envelope addressed to her was a letter 
enclosed in another envelope sealed in wax with the 
royal Russian seal, and the request that she answer the 
letter in the sealed envelope and return the answer with 
the seal unbroken. 

She mailed the answer, as requested. In due time a 
reply came saying the answer was correct; and with it 
an invitation to come to Russia as the guest of the royal 
family. 

There was some deliberation before Mrs. Pepper de- 
cided to go abroad, but eventually she accepted this in- 
vitation, giving seances at various cities on the European 
continent. 

Mr. J. R. Francis, then editor of The Progressive 
Thinker, in a letter to Mrs. Pepper requesting that she 
furnish to his paper an account of her travels, stated 
that "she was one medium in whom he had unlimited 
confidence." In The Progressive Thinker of August 18, 
1906, was printed an article by Mrs. Pepper, in part as 
below : 

" Thousands of miles intervene be ween me and my 
native land, and while it is true that one can feel in all 
climes the sublime thought of Thomas Paine, expressed 
in the words, 'the world is my country, and to do good 
my religion,' nevertheless there is an indescribable yearn- 
ing for that part of the world we call our native land, 



RECOGNITION 27 

that all the ethics and grandeur of past time cannot efface. 
Feeling this I send across the ocean to the readers of 
The Progressive Thinker, and the Spiritualists of Amer- 
ica, a greeting. 

"Being the guest of a countess and her family whose 
love and admiration for Emperor Wilhelm I. remains 
undimmed, although he is no longer in material form, I 
visited his castle and lived for an hour among the things 
he loved. I stood in the historical window where each 
morning for sixty years he reviewed his troops, and 
where they claim he now appears. Then I was taken 
to the castle of the present kaiser, through the gorgeous 
rooms where the 'lady in white' is supposed to walk and, 
give warning of impending danger to the royal house- 
hold. 

"Many who would not believe in the phenomena of 
Spiritualism firmly believe these things, and in conse- 
quence unconsciously believe in the communication and 
apparitions of spirits. 

"There are many organizations of investigators in 
Berlin, divided into lodges, which are secret societies on 
the principle of the Masonic orders in America, com- 
posed entirely of men. Women are not admitted mem- 
bers. They have their passwords, emblems and regalia. 
The places of meeting are called chapels. The largest 
and most influential society is named 'Psychic Lodge,' 
whose master, on reading that I was in the city, sent a 
messenger inviting me to attend a meeting where they 
expected to have a materializing seance. The medium, 
however, failed to appear. The chapel was brilliantly 
lighted, decorated with flowers, and with tall candles 
burning at a crucifix in the center. The men in their 
black velvet and gold regalia were very impressive. 

"I felt in my soul the earnestness of these men and 
these sacred surroundings, investigating the most sacred 
thing that has touched the lives of humanity — the com- 
munication between the world material and the world 



28 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

spiritual — and I bowed my head in reverence to those 
unseen influences who had made me their message bearer. 
Bright Eyes' inability to speak the German language was 
much to be regretted ; but the look of amazement on the 
faces of many present and their expressions of wonder 
fully attested to her good work. It left a deep impression 
on them, as Europe has not produced any clear mental 
mediums. 

"One exceptionally striking test was given to Professor 
Kredler, who has for a number of years been investigat- 
ing, but who never had received a clear, concise test. He 
had read in the papers of Bright Eyes' reading of sealed 
letters, and brought one, sealed and labeled, asking in 
regard to a cousin of his. 

"Immediately upon his handing up this letter, Bright 
Eyes said : 'There is a man with his hand on your letter, 
and he says he is your uncle, William Kredler, your 
father's brother, and you asked about his daughter, 
Veritas.' The rest of the message was of a private 
nature, convincing to him, because the names were not 
in the letter. 

"Taking my hands, with tears in his eyes, in broken 
English he said : 'At last I have some tangible evidence 
to meet the skepticism of my friends,' and that within 
himself he felt he had spoken with his dead uncle. 

"While there I was also the guest of Countess Moltke, 
whose son, Graf Moltke the Second, is the first general of 
the army, still keeping alive the name of Germany's 
greatest field marshal. As her guest I met many men and 
women of rank, and we constantly discussed Spiritualism 
over our dinner and coffee. I found that most of them, 
while not avowed Spiritualists, believe much in the phe- 
nomena. 

"Also I have been the guest of Julius and Judge Max 
Nonweiler, who have become deeply interested in Spirit- 
ualism through letters from their sisters, who are mem- 
bers of the First Spiritual Church of Brooklyn. 



RECOGNITION 29 

"Tomorrow I leave for Darmstadt, the capital of 
Hesse, where I am to meet Russian friends of the 
cause who were so anxious for me to accept an en- 
gagement at St. Petersburg. The papers here are herald- 
ing the fact that the Czar is on his way to Darmstadt 
to consult a celebrated medium, he being an avowed 
Spiritualist. 

"From Darmstadt to Paris, then home 

"And now let us as workers in the great vineyard of 
spiritual truth consecrate our lives anew to those unseen 
intelligences who will continue to bear their message 
to a waiting world." 

In The Progressive Thinker columns we find this in- 
teresting culmination of the Russian visit of Mrs. Van- 
derbilt. 

"Remaining for several weeks as the guest of the Rus- 
sian royal family, when the time of her departure came 
one of the ladies of the household brought her a tray of 
jewels, saying it was their desire that she take something 
with her as a more expressive token than mere words 
could possibly be, but they preferred she should make 
her own selection. She selected a beautifully wrought 
gold cross, set with six or seven large rubies and a num- 
ber of small diamonds. Its money value has been esti- 
mated at several thousand dollars. It is the jewel she 
has often worn before public audiences." 



CHAPTER IV. 
ON THE HEIGHTS 

Stirred with a wish to establish a series of meetings in 
keeping with the highest religious aspect of Spiritualism, 
in 1904 a number of influential men of New York and 
Brooklyn united their efforts. As a result, a society, 
called the First Spiritual Church, was founded in Brook- 
lyn in October of that year. The Aurora Grata Cathedral 
at Bedford Avenue and Madison Street having been se- 
cured for the organization, Mrs. May Pepper was chosen 
as leader and pastor. 

In this movement the founders drew up a set of prin- 
ciples enunciating the scope of the prospective work, the 
sections definitely relating to Spiritualistic tenets standing 
as follows : 

"We believe that the time is ripe for incorporating into 
the doctrines and tenets of all truth-desiring religious 
organizations an acceptance of the fact of spiritual com- 
munication between the physical and spiritual worlds ; and 
in the absence of such acceptance, that wherever prac- 
ticable, religious organizations should be formed which 
shall recognize such communion. 

"We include, as the basis upon which we shall build. 
all essential truth, whether incorporated or not in other 
religions of mankind; and declare it to be our purpose 
to ascertain and make known what is true, especially of 
that which pertains to the spiritual nature of man; his 
psychic powers and possibilities ; his relations to the spir- 
itual world; and to encourage the judicious cultivation of 
spiritual gifts." 

30 




FIRST SPIRITUAL CHURCH AND PARSONAGE 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 



ON THE HEIGHTS 31 

The order of service comprised, besides spirit messages, 
readings from the scriptures, prayer, music with organ 
accompaniment, and a sermon or lecture. The addresses 
delivered embodied teachings calculated to lead toward 
human unfoldment. During one of her early lectures at 
this church, Mrs. Pepper, in voicing the following plea, 
struck the keynote to which she harmonized not only her 
manner of conducting a meeting, but the rhythm of her 
inmost being: 

"Let us come here to consecrate our lives to God and 
build our church upon such a basis, that when we do pass 
to the other life we may claim heaven as our own and 
feel that we have earned it." 

The spirit messages given at the Brooklyn church were 
based upon written queries placed by members of the 
audience upon the desk or pulpit at the front of the audi- 
torium. There is no doubt that this portion of the pro- 
gram formed the attraction which filled the place with 
capacity crowds. Yet there was no slipping toward sen- 
sationalism in any of this. The sacred nature of Spiritu- 
alistic philosophy had too solemn a hold upon May Pepper 
to allow her, in the instance of a single message, to swerve 
from a purpose to uplift. Seldom in Spiritualistic history 
has as long a term of meetings been held which, while 
offering vivid spirit demonstrations, gave such steadfast 
adherence to high ideals. And it is certain that if Spirit- 
ualism had at no time accomplished anything other than 
to present these services to the public, the record then 
established was sufficient to refute every objection ever 
raised to Spiritualistic claims. For at the First Spiritual 
Church of Brooklyn the theories of mind reading and of 
subconscious mind as a source for messages given, were 
counteracted again and again; while the outrageous sug- 
gestion that "only evil spirits communicate" was relegated 
to the mental refuse heap, where it belongs. 



32 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Public attention having been aroused by these meetings, 
the Sunday night message service furnished much ma- 
terial for considerable newspaper copy; but it is to be 
noted that many of these news articles took on a tenor of 
respect not commonly accorded in the daily press to any 
psychic. Mrs. Pepper seemed able, in the sincerity of 
her own conviction and the end achieved by her medium- 
ship, to bring all hearers to a mood of serious considera- 
tion. 

Since any. ordinary theory failed to account for the 
miraculous messages given at Brooklyn, skeptics insinu- 
ated that the medium substituted letters of her own for 
those submitted by the audience. A committee, of whom 
Doctor Funk was one, therefore sat upon the platform 
one evening, and rubber-stamped the letters as they were 
passed in. Mrs. Pepper then satisfactorily answered the 
letters, and thus this explanation was disposed of. 

On an unforgettable night in Brooklyn, an astounding 
spirit demonstration occurred. Taking up a letter which 
had been placed on the desk, Mrs, Pepper declared that 
a skeptic had handed in that envelope and also a second 
one, both addressed to "Grandfather Figuera." No one 
present would acknowledge this. 

The medium, however, instead of dismissing the inci- 
dent, requested the spirit of Grandfather Figuera to aid 
her in finding the second letter to which she had refer- 
ence. She then went through the motion of assisting an 
aged man to step to the desk. 

It is to be remembered that Mrs. Pepper sometimes 
stated that when mentally within the conscious control 
of spirit forces, as in performing the platform message 
work, she usually saw the spirits exactly as she saw 
mortals. On this notable occasion her every gesture 
indicated that she thus perceived the communicator. 

When she apparently had helped an invisible old man 
to wend his way to the platform, she paused. Then 



ON THE HEIGHTS 33 

while a breathless hush stilled the great audience, the heap 
of letters began to move! No mortal hands were on 
them. Presently one singled itself out from among the 
others. 

When Mrs. Pepper picked up the letter thus separated 
from the general heap, a man present admitted that he 
had written both letters addressed to "Grandfather Fig- 
uera." 

Whoever the old gentleman was, he surely lent his 
help to Mrs. Pepper and her spirit band, and took part 
in one of the most remarkable exhibitions of spirit power 
ever witnessed by a large assembly. 

Since the dwellers of the next realm of existence were 
thus plainly perceived by this medium, since the spirit 
life was so real to her, it is not strange that Mary Pepper 
Vanderbilt yearned to devote her energies to preaching 
and teaching the truths of spirit communication, the 
overwhelming importance of which must confront every 
serious thinker. That this body of truth forms the core 
of the lessons taught in Scriptural writ, was also Mrs. 
Vanderbilt's conviction. To quote from one of her 
addresses : 

"Spiritualism is rediscovered truth, brought out of the 
misty past, brought before men's eyes. ... As the 
tomb of Jesus was rent and cast asunder, so is every 
tomb rent asunder, and every spirit resurrected." 

The following messages, quoted from an issue of the 
New York Herald of that time, furnish examples of the 
kind of information usually given at the Brooklyn church, 
messages bespeaking a living affection which touched to 
the quick: 

"One of the letters was addressed simply to 'Pa.' 'This 
is for Pa Cohn/ said Mrs. Pepper, and proceeded to give 
a message to a young woman who admitted the truth 
of it." 



34 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"In answer to another letter a spirit advised a young 
woman in the audience to return to Jamaica. The young 
woman stated that her home was at that place, and that 
she had left it some time previously." 

"In another message, Mrs. Pepper inquired whether 
anyone of the name of Gaston happened to be present, 
further saying that in this connection the spirit of a 
woman was before her, asking to reach her son. 

"When the name was acknowledged by a man in the 
hall, Mrs. Pepper continued : 'The spirit says she has 
seen the tribulations of the father, and has watched over 
her other boy. She says something about — a guinea — ' 

" 'Guiana, the country,' interposed the man. 

" 'She says it would have been better for your brother 
if he had stayed there, but he was bound to go to Bar- 
badoes.' 

" 'Yes, yes, he would go/ said the man. 

" 'She says if you have any influence over him, keep 
him out of the States. Let him go back to Guiana, stick 
to his business there, and he will do well. Is this right, 
Joe?' 

" 'Yes, it is/ half sobbed the man." 

To Spiritualists who are privileged to listen to plat- 
form messages from excellent mediums in the larger 
cities and towns or at the summer camps, the foregoing- 
citation may not seem remarkable in tone; but it must 
be admitted that few psychics are of development so 
advanced that a succession of such tests can be offered 
during an entire seance. The spirit strength operating- 
through Mrs. Pepper was of sustained power, and con- 
tinual reception of clearcut ideas from the world of spirit 
was well within her possibilities. Thus some weight of 
evidence was shaped together in the case of every indi- 
vidual addressed, while in the course of any Sunday 
evening at the First Spiritual Church, some messages 



ON THE HEIGHTS 35 

would by chance deal with details so far removed from 
the ordinary as to leave lasting impression on the minds 
of those who heard them. 

When such were noted in the newspapers Mrs. Pepper 
sometimes clipped and treasured the account. In this 
way the record of the following tests has been preserved : 

"There is a spirit here named Neal. The person he 
comes to is deaf. She has never been in a place like 
this before. She knows nothing about Spiritualism. 

"A young man acknowledged this message, indicating 
an elderly lady with him. 

"The spirit says he is sorry he did not live to restore 
the money he took (he took some money from his 
mother). That he tried to get her to come to this meet- 
ing, in order to have a chance to tell her he is sorry 
he took the $500. 

"The young man stated that all this was correct." 

"On a memorable night in Brooklyn, Mrs. Pepper 
made the statement that a spirit appeared before her with 
a pocketbook in her hand. The initials on the sealed 
letter Mrs. Pepper had picked up were K. W. W. 

"A young woman in the audience raised her hand, 
but stated the spirit, so far as she knew, had nothing 
to do with a pocketbook. 

" T am not mistaken,' said the medium. 'Was not 
this spirit's name Wallet? I hear the name Katherine 
Wallet.' This was acknowledged as correct." 

The way in which the Brooklyn meetings registered 
themselves in the brain of an outsider, is sketched in 
the extract given below, which was printed in the New 
York World some time in 1905 : 

"Mrs. Pepper is tall, with the massive frame of women 
of mountain regions, but covered with the avoirdupois 
of the well-nourished woman, carried with the ease of 



36 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

one who has a fair comprehension of the laws of phys- 
ical being. She also has solved the question of platform 
garb. 

"From the moment she appears she conveys to any 
sentitive person the impression of a dignified woman 
who knows she is under criticism and expects it ; not a 
sanctified, about-to-be-sacrificed expression — neither one 
of antagonism to all her critics. She rather exudes the 
impression of a woman who submits and chafes under 
it all. This is intensified by her own way of alluding 
to herself and critics. 

" 'You said,' she will say, 'that you guessed you would 
go to see "that Pepper woman" ; or sometimes it is "that 
Mrs. Pepper," ' and then she invariably wreathes her 
mouth in an odd smile, as if she might as well laugh at 
it herself. 

"It is said that Mrs. Pepper has devoted herself solely 
to the development of this power of communication, and 
that her great desire is to do good to those who need 
help from the spirits. In support of this it is a fact 
that a large majority of the messages she gives are de- 
signed to give advice to those in need of it. 

"Over in one corner in a line with her chair sits 
Doctor Funk, who has been investigating Mrs. Pepper. 
He sits where he can watch her from the time she comes 
into the pulpit until she has finished. He can watch the 
pile of letters directed to spirit friends and laid there 
by the audience, and can watch Mrs. Pepper's hands. 

"There is no shivering, no rubbing of the eyes, on the 
part of Mrs. Pepper. There is no reference to any 
'little Indian control.' There is no infantile prattle and 
jargon. From the moment Mrs. Pepper picks up an 
envelope from the desk and begins, 'There is a spirit 
here — a spirit comes to me — ' except for the faint rustle 
of garments that accompanies the craning of heads to 
see to whom the message is to be delivered, the place 
is still as death." 



ON THE HEIGHTS 37 

Another illustration of the effect of the meetings at 
the First Spiritual Church is contained in this letter: 

"Since I became a Spiritualist I have endeavored to 
bring my church friends into this work ; many of them I 
have taken to meetings and circles. For some reason 
they always came away disappointed — not satisfied. On 
Thursday evening I invited a number of the members 
of Trinity Church to your meeting. Your tests have 
taken all doubts away from them. 

"Much good has been done for Spiritualism by these 
meetings. Your clear, undeniable tests have lifted this 
beautiful truth to a higher place than it had in the past 
in this city." 

Rev. Herman S. Wallace, of Portland, Oregon, has 
given an account of his experience at one of the Brook- 
lyn meetings : 

"Having lost some papers which I valued highly, it 
was suggested by someone that I seek the aid of Mrs. 
Pepper in locating them. She immediately detailed the 
manner in which I had lost them, and finally told me 
just where I would find them. She further stated in 
minute detail the nature of the undertaking in the in- 
terest of which I had come to the east. All that I had 
told her was that I was a Christian minister and had 
mislaid important papers. 

"Though highly improbable, it was nevertheless pos- 
sible that someone had informed her of my movements ; 
she might have had a confederate who investigated me, 
so I determined to employ another method. I wrote a 
letter and placed it on the table in her church. The 
letter bore the name of my hotel and my own name. I 
thought that this would suggest to her that I wished to 
know something further about my own business. 

"But Mrs, Pepper did not snatch at the bait I had 



38 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

thus placed for her. Instead she looked astounded, then 
called out, 'Why, Dr. Wallace, whatever can you want 
to know about a concert singer? What can a minister 
want to know about a singer?' 

"Then, although the envelope had remained sealed and 
within my sight all the time, she told me just what my 
query was, and added that someone had asked me to 
write about this singer. That was perfectly true. A 
sister of the singer had asked me to find out whether 
she would return to the United States that summer. 
Mrs. Pepper then stated where the girl was staying in 
London, and when she would return." 



CHAPTER V. 
AMONG THE CAMPS 

A movement in which Spiritualists in the United States 
have interested themselves for the past half century, has 
been the encampment idea. In the Northern States many 
such settlements have been established, where during the 
summer a season of public religious meetings is planned 
annually. Many mediums, including those not engaging 
in platform phases of manifestation, are attracted to these 
places, and private and semi-public seances of various 
kinds are in continual progress. In parts of the country 
where the climate is favorable for it, a similar session is 
held in the winter months. 

The record of very many mediums highly developed in 
platform demonstration will show that they have taken 
part in the programs at the camps. Not a great many 
persons having strong psychical power, however, have 
also been qualified to act executively in forwarding camp 
work. Mrs. Vanderbilt possessed executive ability in 
marked degree. Her service as a member of the official 
board in more than one camp has been of the utmost 
value in carrying the affairs toward a material as well as 
a spiritual success. At the time of her transition she was 
president of Lake Pleasant Camp, Massachusetts, having 
served in that office for five years, and she had held for 
ten years the office of president of Camp Etna, Maine. 
Since this presidency meant that, in addition to her 
seances and addresses, she must preside at all large meet- 
ings, and serve as ex-officio chairman on all committees, 
some conception may be formed of how arduous were 
her camp duties. 

39 



40 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

There is at a Spiritualist camp an atmosphere of more 
penetrating psychic appeal than can be found in any in- 
door temple of worship. Many persons have observed 
the spiritual thrill which enwraps a visitor within some 
building long devoted to heartfelt religious service under 
any denominational head; this feeling may prevail alike 
in a dim lit, tumbledown shanty, or before the shining 
altar of a vast cathedral. Such is the vibration sweeping 
a great Spiritualistic encampment, where for years have 
gathered those to whom Spiritualism means not only a 
scientific pursuit, not only a philosophy upon which to 
frame psychological conclusions, but a strong religion 
whereon man's soul may anchor. Skeptics who take the 
trouble to visit the camps are usually honest inquirers. 
They have not dropped in by chance, but have made effort 
to attend in order to learn. The mere wonder-seekers 
are so far outnumbered by the reverent believers in the 
audiences, that there is no impatient rustle ; no rudeness 
of whispered remarks competes with the words of any 
lecturer or giver of messages. There is silence in these 
assemblies — a silence pregnant with emotion — the silence 
in which angels approach. 

If the subtle auraic effect at a camp accumulates force 
enough for its refreshing breath to be felt by many lay- 
men, with what added gratefulness must it mingle with 
the sensitiveness of a psychic? An influence of this sort 
may have been a prime cause for Mrs. Vanderbilt's liking 
for camp environment. At any rate, it is safe to assert 
that she took greater personal pleasure in camp work than 
in any of her engagements in cities and towns. And, in- 
deed, at the camps she was as a star of the first magni- 
tude, whose radiance pointed the way for unnumbered 
throngs. 

An announcement that she was to appear at Unity 
Camp, under the auspices of the Lynn Spiritualists' Asso- 
ciation, would draw thousands to hear her lecture, which 
would be followed by marvelous tests. In 1907, at Unity 



AMONG THE CAMPS 41 

Camp, Saugus Centre, there were people present from 
Boston, Stoneham, Chelsea, Salem, Marblehead, Beverley, 
Swampscott, Newburyport, Melrose and Lynn — in such 
numbers that the auditorium was not large enough to 
accommodate the vast crowd which had come from far 
and near. 

The camp at Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts, was noted 
for its endeavor to secure exceptional talent to grace its 
rostrum. When Mrs. Vanderbilt gave a discourse and 
messages at this place, the biggest crowd assembled there 
since the time of Ingersoll. In 1915 she became president 
of this Association, and held that office to the close of her 
earth life. 

Before Camp Progress Spiritualist Association, at 
Upper Swampscott, many came from Salem, Boston, 
Beverly, Nahant, Lynn and other Massachusetts towns : 
while a large party came all the way from Providence. 
Rhode Island. From twelve to fifteen hundred people 
heard each of the addresses. 

At one of her lectures at this session of meetings, she 
strongly voiced a bit of Spiritualistic knowledge which 
can not too often be reiterated: 

"It is a grave mistake to suppose that all spirits who 
return after death are bad spirits. This is a thought 
which will turn people away from God. The character 
of spirits depends upon the lives they led before leaving 
their material bodies. If we lead noble, upright lives, we 
shall become as angels, but if we sin and do not repent 
we shall exist in the spiritual w r orld in much the same 
unhappy way that we lived in the flesh." 

The camp at Onset Bay, Massachusetts, also repeatedly 
was favored with her presence. A few of the tests given 
there on one occasion found their way into news columns, 
thus making it possible to revive them in the words in 
which they were given : 



42 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"A spirit of a little girl wants to reach her papa. She 
gives her name as Mamie — Mamie — Benedict. Does any- 
body recognize this?" 

''Here," replied a man. 
"Do you know who George Keeler is?" 
"I do." 

"He says he was your brother-in-law." 
"Yes; that's so." 

"Another spirit comes, giving the name of Noah." 
"Yes; I recognize him." 

"The little girl says she passed away in your arms when 
she was five years old. How about that?" 
"That is correct." 

After a meeting at Compounce Camp, Connecticut, a 
newspaper account gave praise : 

"Whether one believes in Spiritualism or not, one must 
admit that Mrs. Pepper is a fine platform speaker and a 
marvelously clever woman. In an address lasting three- 
quarters of an hour she held her audience spellbound, and 
then came the tests that occupied fully an hour. Sealed 
envelopes had been placed on her desk by many of those 
present. Picking these up apparently at random, Mrs. 
Pepper proceeded to tell what was the query contained 
therein. Not once did she fail, and it must be said that 
the information given was not the wishy-washy stuff most 
mediums deal out, but good, common sense matter. Not 
in a single instance did she fail to tell correctly all proper 
names that were in the letters. Whether this is mind 
reading or something else, it can be said that this woman 
is head and shoulders above most of those who practice 
her calling." 



AMONG THE CAMPS 43 



MRS. VANDERBILT AND CAMP ETNA 

Serving Camp Etna for seventeen seasons, and acting 
as president of that Association the last ten years of her 
earth life, it is not extravagant to claim that Etna became 
to Mary Vanderbilt the dearest spot on earth. 

The Banner of Life, in its issue of August 12, 1916, 
contained a bit about Camp Etna which Mrs. Vanderbilt 
herself had written : 

"Sixteen miles west of Bangor, nestling among the 
pines in one of Maine's productive valleys, lies Camp 
Etna, the camp where Harrison D. Barrett received his 
early physical and mental training as well as his first 
spiritual lessons; and where, as president of the Na- 
tional Association of Spiritualists, he returned just twenty 
years ago, with a party of friends, which included Mr. 
and Mrs. B. B. Hill of Philadelphia, Mrs. M. E. Cad- 
wallader (of everywhere), Dr. H. B. Storer, president 
of Onset ; A. J. Maxhan, the sweet singer, and the writer. 

"Out of that party, today only two remain in the phys- 
ical — Mrs. Cadwallader and the writer of this article. 

"Each year as I journey back to camp I review the 
years and what they have brought to Etna, and what Etna 
has contributed to the cause. Etna has the distinct honor 
of being the only Spiritualist camp where a nominee for 
governor came for strength and courage, and found the 
light in a personal message which his election verified. 
During his term of office as a mark of respect to Spirit- 
ualism he gave the camp a 'governor's day,' Spiritualism 
being the only religious cult, receiving such an honor. 

"From a small camp of early days when three or four 
hundred congregated on Sundays to hear our speakers, 
many thousands now constitute the audiences at our Sun- 
day services. And all over Maine this great truth from 
Etna has shed its light, until to this Mecca of Spiritualism 



44 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

have come Maine's most gifted sons and daughters. In 
consequence it became the birth spot of new thought 
along theological and scientific lines, and the baptismal 
fount of the knowledge of life's continuity." 

Said a prominent Spiritualistic speaker, in alluding to 
the throngs at Etna: "They come in farmers' carts — in 
wagons — in anything — the Lord only knows how they all 
do get there." That hosts of people came was another 
reason why Mrs. Vanderbilt liked Camp Etna. It was 
possible for her to reach a multitude there. She has 
said, "I like large audiences ; I like light," explaining that 
with a small number of people there may not be many 
who reach out strongly to friends in spirit ; or most of 
those present may have led colorless lives, with few points 
upon which to strike an electric contact to fire not only 
one soul but scores. 

The airy, open auditorium of a camp will permit larger 
numbers than could be accommodated in a city church 
or hall, to listen comfortably. Further, a wider territory 
can be drawn upon for a camp audience. But given these 
two conditions, a speaker or medium must be truly great 
who can continue to attract audiences averaging five 
thousand. Therefore a rare endowment is chronicled in 
a single statement when the fact is set down that at Camp 
Etna it was no uncommon thing, upon ascending the ros- 
trum, for Mary Vanderbilt to face ten thousand people, 
drawn there in the hope and knowledge that she would 
act as interpreter for the angel world. 

















— ■ ^~^j^^BH 






fcBsgsa^ »»-^- • 


i 1 

— " 

j 

j I 

ni 3g 


SI 


1 ..J 


3 ; P^fl 
SI 






■L" 









HOME OF MRS. VANDERBILT 
587 St. Marks Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 



CHAPTER VI. 
SUNSET 

The 1918 season at Camp Etna, Maine, was marked 
by many special features. Mrs. Vanderbilt had arranged 
an especially attractive program and when she returned 
to her Brooklyn home in September after her strenuous 
camp work she became ill, but after a short time insisted 
upon taking up her work again. 

Then she was taken with influenza which left her so 
weak that for a time her life was despaired of. However, 
with her determined will she fought off the illness, dur- 
ing which she was tenderly cared for ; and as time went 
on she felt that she would like to go among the Spiritual- 
ists of New England in the hope that meeting and greet- 
ing them would give her new strength. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt went to Providence, where she stayed 
with an old friend, Mrs. Lowe. Later going to Boston 
to consult a specialist, she grew rapidly worse and for 
several weeks was unable to leave the Parker House. 
Everything that loving hearts and capable hands could 
do for her was done to no avail. Her spirit was willing 
but the flesh was weak. 

Her Last Address 

The seventy-first anniversary of Modern Spiritualism 
was being celebrated in Berkeley Hall, under the aus- 
pices of the Massachusetts State Association. 

Although Mrs. Vanderbilt had been so ill that her life 
was despaired of, she felt the spirit urge, and insisted 
upon attending the exercises. 

45 



46 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Accompanied by her sister, Miss Harriet Scannell, 
Mrs. M. E. Cadwallader and Mr. Luey Hill, Mrs. Van- 
derbilt went for the last time to a Spiritualist meeting. 
There in Berkeley Hall she delivered an address — her 
valedictory. 

The ovation accorded her by the audience, who knew 
she had been ill, and were glad to see her out again, was 
a heartfelt testimonial to her worth and her work. 

President Wiggin welcomed her to the platform. 
"Words," said he, "cannot express my gratification at 
your being here and at my being honored in giving you 
welcome and presenting you to the people." 

Amid an enthusiasm that was unbounded, Mrs. Van- 
derbilt rose to her feet, and in a voice trembling with 
emotion dwelt upon her first appearance at Berkeley 
Hall, almost twenty-four years earlier. It was, she said, 
as if a procession of spirit witnesses passed in vision 
before her, as she named Dr. H. B. Storer, Amelia Colby 
Luther, R. S. Lillie, J. D. Stiles, Frank Baxter, W. J. 
Colville, W. Banks, Harrison D. Barrett, and many 
others. 

"They have gone to their reward." Mrs. Vanderbilt 
declared. "Who will take their places?" 

Her voice rang out strong and clear as she declared 
her devotion to Spiritualism. 

Earnestly she urged all to be steadfast to the call of 
the spirit, to be true to the cause of Spiritualism. She 
recounted the blessings that had come to all through the 
knowledge of continued life. Every eye was upon her. 
Many of those who were gathered at the meeting never 
expected to see her again. She spoke with deep feeling, 
every word emphasized as though she wanted to impress 
her statement upon her hearers. 

"My friends," she said as she finished, "I have found 
Spiritualism a good thing to live by; and I have come 
pretty close to finding it a good thing to die by." 



SUNSET 47 

This was her last public utterance. It will be remem- 
bered upon each anniversary. No recanting, no thought 
of anything save that Spiritualism had been her staff 
through life, and that she had found it safe to lean upon 
even to the end. 



'Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 

When I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 

Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark ! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell, 

When I embark. 

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crossed the bar." 



The call promoting her to a higher plane came with 
sudden announcement to the world of Spiritualism. But 
here and there, for some months previous, her words had 
shown that she subconsciously sensed or had been in a 
manner reminded that "some day the silver cord shall 
break." It was in her native New England — at Boston — 
that her spirit emerged from earth conditions on Sunday 
morning, April 27, 1919. Close to her at the time was 
the love and affection of those then nearest in her life — 
her husband, E. W. Vanderbilt; her sister, Miss Hai • 



48 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

riet Scannell, and a lifelong friend, W. R. Fales, of 
Providence, Rhode Island. It may well be said that a 
mighty leader has fallen a tower of strength to the cause 
of Spiritualism has passed to eternal life. 

It was in compliance with her request that the ashes of 
her body were interred in the camp ground at Etna, 
Maine. On that spot has been placed a New England 
boulder, with the simple inscription — 

Mary S. Vanderbilt 

1919 

Not a long life, but one rich in results — one which may 
be chosen as a model of perseverance and devotion to the 
perfecting of a God-given talent. Yet it is more than 
this. It represents the use of that talent in such a way 
that a light shines back upon the memory of Mary Van- 
derbilt out of the hearts of thousands ; that greatest light 
in the keeping of human kind — Love. 






CHAPTER VII. 
TRANSITION SERVICE 

OF 

MARY SCANNELL VANDERBILT 

Rev. Frederick A. Wiggin, Pastor of Unity Church 
of Boston (Mass.) Officiating 

The transition services were held at the residence of 
Mrs. Herbert Lowe, in Providence, Rhode Island. 

So lifelike was the appearance of the deserted body, 
that it seemed its tenant might be quietly sleeping, sur- 
rounded by flowers. Into the silence of those assembled 
came the hymn, rendered by a male quartette, "Lead, 
Kindly Light." After a prayer and the reading of the 
Twenty-third Psalm and other selections, the singers 
followed with "When the Mists Have Rolled Away." 

Mr. Wiggin was deeply affected when he said: 

"For about thirty- four years I have known Mrs. Van- 
derbilt as a public worker. Her labors in behalf of 
Spiritualism have been distinctly marked and affirma- 
tively telling. I have known her equally well and long 
in private life. 

"As a Spiritualist she was fearless and intensely 
earnest. I make a conservative statement when I say 
Mrs. Vanderbilt, as a chosen instrument of the spirit- 
world, brought more comfort to sorrowing hearts than 
any other woman of her time. 

49 



50 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"The principal thing the thinking world desires is 
simply happiness. By spirit-voiced messages she brought 
happiness to thousands upon thousands. 

"When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others write so 
eloquently upon matters psychic, the whole world reads 
with unusual interest all they say upon the subject of 
Spiritualism — and this is as it should be. But how few, 
while reading the words of these great men, stop to 
think that these writers would have nothing of value to 
utter concerning spirit phenomena if it were not for 
such mediums as Mrs. Vanderbilt was; through whose 
organism the spirit world poured forth with such great 
abundance, the truth that life really continues after 
physical dissolution, and that the so-termed dead do ac- 
tually return. 

"The name of one who has been an instrument where- 
by even a single genuine message has been brought to 
earth's people from a higher life, should be immortal- 
ized. Mrs. Vanderbilt brought not merely one, but 
hundreds of such messages, through the help of her 
spirit guides. 

"Our arisen sister was a profound thinker upon mat- 
ters pertaining to Spiritualism. She was a strong and 
consistent advocate of a thorough organization of the 
followers of this cult. She was an eloquent speaker, 
and in a forceful, telling manner drove home to thou- 
sands the truth of spiritual philosophy. As a psychic 
she was excelled by none. How many have hung upon 
her utterances, as impelled by her guides, for some word 
or words to relieve them of sorrow and depression. How 
many thousands have received from her guides the mag- 
ical words that did replace their gloom with joy! 

"Quietly yet effectively Mrs. Vanderbilt gave great 
help to many a medium struggling to acquire added power 
as a psychic and seeking opportunity to express it when 
acquired. There are many who are grateful for the help 
she gave them. She was liberal of her rare talents and 



TRANSITION SERVICE 51 

of her money. Many a strong Spiritualist society owes 
its strength to her generosity, her earnest, unselfish aid : 
her freely bestowed benefactions. Many an individual 
life has been brightened by her encouragement and her 
liberality. She never stinted effort nor aid where either 
was needed. Her good deeds done among the poor and 
needy were many indeed, but never ostentatious. She 
sought to do what good she might, but always with a 
hidden hand. The good she did was done for its own 
sake; with never a thought of its becoming known or 
bringing thanks. The first law of life is service. If 
anyone ever lived by that law, she did, quietly, as a 
matter of course. It was her way. 

"My stammering tongue almost fails me, for as your 
hearts are heavy, mine is too. If I were permitted, I 
would sit among you today, silent with my tears. But 
I must honor a request our arisen sister made of me, 
and speak, now that her lips are silent. 

"Some, seeing the still form lying there may ask, 
'Where is the living soul-principle that only yesterday 
animated that form?' We feel sure we can answer that 
question. 

"Even while confined by the limitations to which all 
flesh is heir, one can feel a love that is strong ; but those 
limitations often restrain its expression. Once we are 
emancipated from them, we will find that the real self 
is love. Physical bondage holds it from being where 
those are toward whom it most stressfully yearns. 

"Those whom our dear sister loves are many indeed, 
but some, dearest of all to her, are paying loving tribute 
to her memory. She would express her love still to all 
whom she loved, and we know she is no longer prevented 
from doing so since the soul has no limitations; and it 
is at once the logical thing to expect her to be where 
those she loved are; and she is here with you. I can 
seem now to see her smiling face, to hear her voice. She 
would not have us call her back into the body of flesh. 



52 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

She is now of the spiritual body; for her there is only 
life and happiness. She would not be called back, but 
rather is she calling us to that fair land. To one and all 
of you she will sometime speak again face to face, and 
her words will be not a sad good-night, but a glad good- 
morning. ,, 

The quartet then sang "Abide With Me," after which 
Mr. Wiggin pronounced the committal service. 

The deserted body was later taken to Forest Hill for 
cremation, and, at her request the ashes rest at the Etna 
(Maine) camp grounds. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MEMORIAL SERVICE 

Rev. F. A. Wiggin 

Sunday, May 25, 1919, Unity Church 

Boston, Massachusetts 

It is particularly fitting that we gather here in com- 
memoration of our sister and her work. My memory 
goes back to the time when she stood here in the physical 
form, speaking to an audience which filled every seat in 
this large auditorium. 

I wonder if the people who flocked here and elsewhere 
for her messages, remember her for what she has done 
for them? 

Are we Spiritualists after the loaves and fishes, and 
less anxious for the truth which blesses us? 

I have already paid my tribute to her life, for love has 
no tribute. 

It is an all-enduring, everlasting love. 

Love never forgets, it merely feels. 

No one can describe what love is. Love is so large. 

No human tongue can express it. 

I often wonder what love is. 

Why do we mourn for the physical loss of a friend? 
Did we become fully acquainted with the soul of that 
friend, and the spirit which never dies? 

Why should we mourn when the tenement dissolves? 
Is it not because we were not so well acquainted with 
the real spirit? 

53 



54 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

I am convinced by experience that those we love we 
never forget. We do not need any photograph of the 
physical body by which to remember them. 

It has been said that our sister reached many people 
with an uplift. 

She certainly convinced them of the continuity of life, 
a conviction which in itself is an uplift. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt had spiritual vision in a remarkable 
degree. 

When she was at Lakewood, where I was President 
for nine years, and introduced her to the people many 
times, it was wonderful to note how crowds came when 
she was going to speak. 

W T hy did she attract so many people? Was it because 
she was advertised largely? 

When you advertise an inefficient individual, you 
hasten his downfall. If one of merit occupies the plat- 
form, the people come again. 

She touched some part of human nature with a spirit- 
ual message, which carried convincing testimony to the 
one receiving it. 

Sometimes it seemed only like the snap of a finger, 
and every doubt vanished. 

She was a medium after my own heart. 

One feature I admired, was, her fearlessness and de- 
termination. 

Though as kind as generosity itself, she could cut off 
some people with a word. In the case of other messages, 
when the individual receiving one for the first time, and 
was touched to tears, I have seen May shedding tears 
also. 

Her heart was so large, the ordinary person could not 
comprehend it. 

She was never satisfied with less than the best. 

She fought her way along the path of contention, 
largely from Spiritualists. 



MEMORIAL SERVICE 55 

Mrs. Vanderbilt, wherever she went, stood between 
the living and the dead. 

We are the dead and the world of the dying ; she spoke 
from the world of the living to the world of the dead 
and the dying. 

We must remember her for far more than her mes- 
sages. 

Miss Susie C. Clark 

"You call her dead! 
And yet she lives and loves! O wondrous truth! 
'Neath golden skies she breathes immortal youth! 
Look upward! Where the roseate sunset beams, 
Her spirit form amid the brightness gleams." 

Among the many just and richly deserved tributes paid 
to our arisen sister by our pastor, mention was made of 
her great generosity of heart, her helpfulness to younger 
mediums and other workers. 

For this statement made me hark back to the exper- 
ience of a young woman whom I knew, who once made 
a visit to the Lakewood Camp in Madison, Maine. 

She was a stranger, save to one or two of the talent. 

She arrived after dark, and alone, and expected to 
remain unnoticed and unknown while enjoying the work 
of others. 

There was an open conference or discussion that eve- 
ning, upon the subject of healing, and our sister, May 
Pepper she was then, was called upon for her remarks. 

She came forward and regretted that she was incap- 
able of giving the audience much light upon this theme. 
Her appointed work lay along different lines. 

"But," said she, with emphasis, "we have a visitor with 
us this evening, who can tell you more about healing in 
five minutes than I could in a week. My contribution 



56 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

to your subject in comparison with hers would be like 
one little wavelet to the broad lake out here." 
. And so the stranger was brought forward and intro- 
duced to the notice and acquaintance of all, and her small 
light made visible through the generous kindness of Mrs. 
Vanderbilt. 

Now wasn't that a beautiful thing to do? So thought- 
ful, self-eclipsing; and she did not know it would be 
remembered and rebound to her credit ind praise, after 
her kind heart had ceased to beat. 

Many other instances of her generous service could be 
recalled, but this one will always remain a beautiful mem- 
ory to that visiting stranger. 

When she was pastor of a church in Brooklyn, on one 
occasion she was giving a prolonged message to a woman 
in the audience, when suddenly, in the midst of a sen- 
tence, she shouted to a policeman standing in the door- 
way : 

"Officer, seize that boy going by you! He has just 
stolen the purse of the lady sitting next to him." 

And then she proceeded with her message without the 
slightest break in interest, or in the quality of her clair- 
voyance, while the , officer went after the lad and recov- 
ered the stolen wallet. 

It would seem sometimes as if she had, like the angels 
watching above us, an all-seeing vision. 

At another meeting in the same hall, she gave the name 
of a spirit to a gentleman sitting near the front, who 
resolutely refused to recognize it as one he had ever 
heard of. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt contested that the spirit said he knew 
him, and as further proof of his identity, he would say 
that he went out of life by being murdered. 

Again the man protested his inability to recall the 
name or incident, and the medium finished her message 
by saying: 



MEMORIAL SERVICE 57 

"Well, the spirit says it is very singular you cannot 
recall him, since you are the only person on earth who 
knows who murdered him." 

Whereupon the man seized his hat and hastily left the 
hall. 

Perhaps in the future, when wars are over and the 
planet grows riper, we shall have even more wonderful 
media, but let us appreciate and give thanks for this rare 
flower of mediumship, this queen of the spiritual plat- 
form — Mary S. Vanderbilt. 

"Call her not dead. 
O speak not thus ! Her tender heart you grieve 
And 'twixt her love and yours a barrier weave, 
Call her by sweetest name, your voice she'll hear, 
And through the darkness like a star appear." 

Mrs. Nettie Holt Harding 

My thought goes back to our sister's first engagement 
in Berkeley Hall. How many of her hearers since then 
have gone into the spirit-world far more beautiful than 
they would have been but for her ministry ! 

To me, this going out proves the beauty of Spiritual- 
ism, for she brought sweet comfort and consolation to 
human hearts. To me it is only taking a broad and beau- 
tiful journey, which every human soul must take some- 
time, when we shall clasp hands with those who have 
preceded us, and our own souls will be illumined by the 
power of Spirit. 

Our dear sister and co-worker had traveled and spoken 
all over the country. How many thousands she has 
reached and convinced them of the continuity of life ! 

Let our thoughts go to her companion, may the sun- 
shine enter his home and bring back to his consciousness 
the sweet voice which now is silent. 

These flowers bespeak the love felt for her spirit. 



58 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Lakewood has been mentioned here, and this brings 
the thought of how she is loved throughout the State of 
Maine. 

Let us gird on our armor and go forth in the pathway 
she trod, not doing just her work perhaps, but giving 
forth that which is within us ; and some day our acquaint- 
ance with our sister shall be renewed, and the glad hand- 
shake will be ours. 



Mrs. H. C. Berry 

The lips are closed, the heart ceases to beat, the voice 
refuses to speak; yet Mary S. Vanderbilt, your friend 
and mine, in whose memory we have met this Sabbath 
morning, still lives. 

No one has ever come into the spiritual field of labor, 
whose work has been recognized so widely, as hers has 
been. No one was so tender in feeling as she, for those 
who had not reached the heights she had. Truly, she 
will be remembered by what she has done, and hundreds 
all over the land will look up and call her blessed. 

We, who understand something of Spiritualism, know 
that as she becomes stronger, and her aspiration goes out. 
we will get kindly messages from her. 

Let us do the best we can, not so well as our friend 
has done perhaps, but our best, and she will smile upon 
and bless us. She will be watching and waiting for you. 

Let us live realizing the stupendous power about us. 

Then when we go hence, those we love and who loved 
us will receive us with a gladsome smile. 



CHAPTER IX. 

TRIBUTES 

A HUSBAND'S TRIBUTE 

E. W. Vanderbilt 

"Come, see the man who has told me everything." 

This was the exclamation of the woman who was at 
the well, when the Master appeared, and she ran to her 
friends trembling because this great communication was 
received by her from a stranger. 

In rehearsing the short life of Mrs. Vanderbilt, the 
words of the woman at the well have been repeated many 
times during the administration of her wonderful power 
of spirit communication. 

The little boy in a strange land, whose mother had left 
him and became a spirit — and he was lost to know where 
to find his father. Then he wrote a letter to his spirit 
mother asking the question, if she could tell him where 
his father was. His spirit mother came to Mrs. Van- 
derbilt and told him to write to a certain city where his 
father was, and he would receive a communication from 
him. The little fellow brought the communication to the 
meeting and read it to the audience, showing what his 
angel mother had done for him. 

This is only one of the myriads of the communica- 
tions that came through Mrs. Vanderbilt to those who 
were sorrowing in heart ; and in one case was ready to 
destroy her body life. She too wrote a letter to her 
spirit mother, and laid it on the altar at the meeting. 
Then that spirit mother came to Mrs. Vanderbilt and 

59 



60 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

told her daughter to give to the medium the bottle she 
had in her pocket and then gave her directions what to 
do and so helped her out of the predicament she was in, 
through which she was going to destroy herself. 

These two little instances were only a few of the great 
many communications that came to her from those who 
had passed into the spirit life, and wanted to relieve 
those who were in distress, in despair, and were almost 
giving up hope; and at the last moment turned to her 
meeting, with letters and communications to those in 
spirit life, for guidance and help in order to overcome 
the struggle and the suffering and the doubt that was 
surrounding them in this material life here. 

When we compare her great and noble work, unselfish, 
but so imbued with her religious faith that the spirit 
world had educated her into, it was like feeding the mul- 
titude, as the Master did with his few loaves and fishes, 
by which the blessing extended beyond the limit of the 
comprehension of the mortal, into the comprehension of 
spirit. It was like sowing good seed on good ground, 
and it produced more than a hundred-fold of blessings 
to those who attended her meeting. It gave them new 
life and inspiration. It showed them where the fountain 
of living waters was continually flowing to those who 
were in need. 

So as mortal lips try to express the meaning of those 
great communications, it is like asking an infant to 
repeat the Ten Commandments given to Moses. It is 
beyond the comprehension of the mortal to solve the 
spirit, and I do not wonder that they went away mysti- 
fied, unable to comprehend the great work she was doing, 
standing as an ambassador from the angel world to this. 
Then, do you wonder, when the truth of Spiritualism 
was expounded by facts and reality that the evil-doers 
did not want their life read to them, and when one in 
that great audience had committed wrong, and was deny- 
ing the truth of that communication, when the spirit 



TRIBUTES 61 

pointed to him, saying, "You know the man who com- 
mitted the act, and you cannot deny it" — he suddenly 
left the audience, condemned because he was the guilty 
one. 

How many people walking in the high paths of life 
today would want the Book of Life opened to their 
friends in this world, telling of the acts done in the body, 
which they thought were hidden, but were recorded and 
every act known to the spirit world? 

The reformation coming to this world is going to be 
from spirit communication ; the two worlds blending as 
one will purify this world ; and it is stated in that Great 
Book that the second coming of the Master would be 
with power. What is more powerful than an angel 
bringing testimony in regard to the guilt of the person 
on trial? Can they deny that? No. Therefore, people 
are afraid of spirit communications, because they know 
they are true. When Mrs. Vanderbilt brought these mes- 
sages, could they be denied ? No. No one can contradict 
the spirit, because the evidence is so powerful that they 
condemn the guilty one by his own speech. 

So if I made a memorial of her work, greater books 
would have to be made, and as her work was of a per- 
sonal nature, relieving a personal sorrow, helping the 
doubter and giving fresh encouragement to the discour- 
aged. It is beyond the reach of memory to record all 
messages because each would have to testify for himself 
and tell of the wonderful truth of the messages received. 

Do you think for one moment, now that Mrs. Vander- 
bilt has left the earthly body, that she is still idle, not tak- 
ing an interest in the welfare of those left behind? No. 
Her power now is not limited by matter material, as we 
understand it, because she is in the spirit world, the am- 
bassador of an angel bringing communications to this and 
all those great mediums are working in the same line. 
That is the power of thought coming to the world today. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt took the place of the great arch that 



62 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

spans two worlds and connects them together. Over 
that arch came the messages from the other shore to 
this, and many a soul was made happy and rejoiced over 
the information received which was brought by a mes- 
senger coming over that arch from the other side. 

Now all is still because the arch has disappeared and 
the messenger no longer can travel over it. We are left 
on the shore of time, wondering when the arch to eternity 
will be spanned again. 

It is true there are many arches still left, but not the 
great arch that Bright Eyes came over so often with 
messages of good cheer and help to the weary and the 
down-trodden and those who were in despair. 

May the great loss be a lesson to us that we live more 
in spirit than in body. That the spiritual nature be the 
prominent nature of our lives, and the message left by 
the Master to His disciples, just before His departure be 
the message that Mrs. Vanderbilt has left for you all : 
"See to it that ye love one another and thus grow in 
spirit." 



A SISTER'S TRIBUTE 

Harriet Scannell 
Boston, Massachusetts 

How like a great oak Mary S. Vanderbilt stood the 
blast of many storms, of ridicule and persecution. Never 
once did she falter, but moved ever onward and upward, 
climbing the stairs of her Gethsemane. She voiced the 
message of spiritual truth and unfoldment to a waiting 
world. Inspired, she stood before great throngs, touched 
with the inspiration from the spirit-world, and said to 
humanity : "We live again after the change called death. 
We are just as much spirit today as we ever will be. 
So-called death does not put so much as a comma in the 



TRIBUTES 63 

way." There she stood, divinely gifted, the chosen in- 
strument of the spirit-world, giving health, love and com- 
fort to others, forgetting self, but always working for 
the uplift, the betterment of humanity, and the cause she 
loved. She needs no epitaphs. The spiritual truth she 
taught, the great universal soul she was, the help she 
gave in loving service to humanity — these are her mon- 
uments. 



AN APPRECIATION 

by 
M. E. CADWALLADER 

Never had pen of mine a more unwilling mission than 
to chronicle the transition of the one whose life and labors 
had been so fruitful of results. But the blow has fallen. 
The angel of death has touched the eyelids of our friend 
and coworker. She has gone to rest. The loss is not 
merely personal to us. It is a calamity to the cause of 
Spiritualism. 

When after a long illness an operation was decided on 
as the only chance of prolonging her life, there was every 
hope given by the attending physicians and surgeons that 
all would be well. Hope beat high in the hearts of her 
loved ones. Thousands prayed for her recovery. "All 
is well," came the message from the physician. Then sud- 
denly came a collapse, and the brave heart that had 
throbbed so long for the sorrows of others in a desire to 
comfort them ceased to beat, and Mary S. Vanderbilt en- 
tered eternal life, there to reap the harvest of her efforts 
here on earth. 

Words are inadequate to express even a tithe of all that 
has been accomplished by this beloved and wonderful 



64 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

woman, whose love for Spiritualism was so intense that 
for her no sacrifice was too great to make in its service. 

Thirty-six years a medium in public and private. What 
a record ! Life is made up of heart throbs, not of years, 
and none but she could tell us of the heartaches that 
marked her progress. 

The history of Spiritualism cannot be written without 
the record of her achievements. Her fame is world 
wide. Little did those who first heard her foresee that the 
gift she possessed would take her into the highest courts 
of the world. Yet the time came when royalty bowed to 
her powers. 

New England is in mourning today because of the pass- 
ing of this brave, gifted woman, for New England seemed 
to have a special claim upon her. On every side is heard, 
"No one can fill her place." From Maine to Rhode Island 
she was acknowledged as their leader. She was president 
of Etna Camp in Maine ; President of New England Camp 
Meeting Association, Lake Pleasant ; President of Com- 
pounce Camp Association ; Vice-President of the Connec- 
ticut State Association of Spiritualists, and connected with 
Unity Camp, Lee, Massachusetts, and Harwich Camp. 
She was a born leader. This was so fully acknowledged 
that the New England leaders came to depend upon her in 
all emergencies. 

It was only necessary to announce her name to have any 
auditorium crowded by those who were hungry for a mes- 
sage from "Bright Eyes," the spirit guide who was so 
closely associated with Mrs. Vanderbilt as to seem almost 
a part of her very being. Though New England claimed 
her, she belongs to the world. Etna Camp was her pride. 
Here she ministered to thousands upon thousands. As 
many as ten thousand people have gathered at one time 
hoping to get a message. 



TRIBUTES 65 

She was fearless in her denunciation of wrong.. She 
never would tolerate the slightest deviation from the high 
standard she set for mediumship. Spiritualism was to her 
a religion, her mediumship a sacred trust that she would 
have guarded with her life. Those in her closest friend- 
ship knew she would have forfeited everything of earthly 
value rather than break faith with her angel guards. She 
realized to the full that "labor, suffering, and reproach" are 
the three stars that shine brightest in the crown that adorns 
the brow of fidelity. 

Her work was not confined to New England. For five 
years she was pastor of the First Spiritual Church, Brook- 
lyn. It was during this time she attracted the attention of 
Mr. Isaac Funk, author of The Widow's Mite. He be- 
came interested in Spiritualism, and tested her in every 
way possible, only to realize that her mediumship was be- 
yond question or cavil. 

Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Brooklyn, and 
many other cities were the scenes of her labors. She at- 
tended many national conventions during the early years 
of her mediumship, but for many years after that her work 
was public, except for those few close friends who were 
privileged to receive messages from her. 

In 1906 Mrs. Vanderbilt went to Russia by special in- 
vitation from the imperial family. Nicholas, the late Czar, 
made every effort to have her stay in Russia, where she 
gave many sittings to the members of his family, who in 
every way expressed their appreciation ; and many notables 
of Europe were privileged to talk with her spirit guides. 
In Germany members of the emporer's family, and many 
of the court officials, expressed their appreciation of her 
work. In England the late King Edward received her. 
Every inducement was made to have her remain in 
Europe, but she preferred to work among "her own peo- 
ple," as she called the Spiritualists of the United States. 
She was away about a year. 



66 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

In 1907 she married E. W. Vanderbilt of Brooklyn, 
New York. This union brought her a devoted affection 
and surrounded her with love so unselfish and untiring 
that her life was made happier than it ever had been. 
When she became weary with her labors she returned to 
her beautiful home in New York, and there she found al- 
ways a heaven of rest. Mr. Vanderbilt did everything in 
his power to make her life complete. To him her medium- 
ship was a divine gift. He looked upon her as an in- 
strument of the angel world. Her passing has brought 
him a profound sorrow, but he realizes that she can and 
will communicate with him ; and he can rejoice that she is 
freed from the pain-racked body that confined her soul. 

Her sufferings are over. If she could speak to us she 
would say to each, "I have only gone a little way ahead, 
and you will follow. In the meantime I can and will come 
back. In your hours of sadness I will be near to bless and 
cheer you. Keep on with my work. Do not let the seeds 
I have sown die, nor the labors of my life perish because 
I am not there to carry them on. Instead, as has been said, 
'Let my love be as a thousand springs to inspire you to do 
your part in this great work for humanity.' Comfort the 
sorrowing, carry on the message. This do I bid you." 

Mrs. Vanderbilt has gone from our mortal sight, but 
she is not dead. Freed from the limitations of her earth- 
ly body, she will be a power in the spirit world that will 
be felt. Her loving memory will live in our hearts. She 
needs no marble monument. Her deeds live, and multi- 
tudes will rise up to call her blessed; and so we say not 
farewell, but adieu until we meet again. You are now 
promoted to a higher grade. You have had your diploma 
from this primary school of life, and have entered upon 
the way to eternal progress. 



TRIBUTES 67 

Elizabeth Harlow Goetz 
Baltimore, Maryland 

Mrs. Vanderbilt overcame some of the mightiest ob- 
stacles any woman ever conquered. From an unknown 
girl she grew to be a woman of power and international 
fame. She was strong, but sympathetic; firm but just; 
sometimes aggressive, but always for right. 

In her higher birth we have lost from our platform 
one of the greatest, if not the greatest, demonstrator who 
ever graced it. She stood out, a lone star in all its glory. 

I personally feel this great loss. While in our later 
years our lives have drifted apart in the work we have 
each had to do, yet the tie of friendship never has been 
broken ; and w r e often communicated and felt the warmth 
of the past. 

She has gone in the height of her womanhood and 
power. This is the closing of a most remarkable career, 
a most perfect day. 



Rev. Will J. Erwood 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

No history of Modern Spiritualism could be complete 
without a record and a full appreciation of the great work 
of Mary S. Vanderbilt. So many have stressed the great 
loss sustained by Spiritualism through her transition, that 
I have no desire to dwell upon that phase. The loss is 
beyond computation; yet her work lives in every human 
being brought into Spiritualism through her ministra- 
tions. Her work impressed and still impresses me — it 
was of such unusual character and force. During the 
last seven years of her labors it was my privilege to have 
her on the platform of the First Association of Spirit- 
ualists in Philadelphia. To relate a few instances will 
be to add but a faint tribute out of all that might be said, 
but these instances are of a nature that none may gainsay. 



68 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Out of the many examples of her great mediumship, 
the following are good specimens : One evening in the 
early spring of 1918, Mrs. Vanderbilt was holding one 
of her memorable message services in our Temple, when 
I saw come into the room a young student whom I knew, 
but of whose family I knew nothing. With him was 
another young man, also a stranger to me. They had 
been seated but a few moments when Mrs. Vanderbilt 
paused a moment and then said : 

"A man comes to me and says he is looking for George. 
He says he was born in the old country, and that he has 
with him his father and many others" — all of whom were 
mentioned in detail. 

Continuing after a slight pause, she said : "Now he 
walks down the aisle and stops by you," pointing to the 
young man with the student, "and he says you are the 
George he wants. He tells me your name is George 
Taylor; that you were born in Ireland, and have been 
here but a short time." 

Then followed name after name and fact after fact 
that the young man, white in the face and with a shake 
in voice, acknowledged to be true. 

After the service I stood at the door greeting the peo- 
ple. This young man came up and I spoke to him about 
the message. 

"That was quite a message you received. Was it quite 
clear to you ?" I asked. 

"Every word of it was true. I never have been in a 
Spiritualist meeting before. That woman certainly has 
got me guessing!" was the fervent response. 

On another occasion, in November of the same year, 
Mrs. Vanderbilt was to be with us. An hour or two 
before time to start for the services my telephone rang. 
I answered in person and found another student, a girl, 
was calling. To her question when Mrs. Vanderbilt 
would be with us again, I replied "tonight." 

"Oh, dear," she said, "I was going to New York to- 
night." She paused a moment and then said, "I believe 
I'll wait and go to New York tomorrow." 



TRIBUTES 69 

When the services began, she was sitting in the third 
row from the platform. 

This young woman had an Irish name, so my surprise 
can be imagined when Mrs. Vanderbilt's guide began 
giving a number of German names of people who had 
lived and passed away in Germany. To my still greater 
surprise she turned to the young lady and said, "these 
people are for you." 

I was so sure she was making a mistake that I was 
ashamed to look at the young lady, for I felt I was to 
blame for her presence. When I did finally gain courage 
to look at her, she was looking at me with shining eyes 
and nodding her head in affirmation. When the service 
was over, without waiting to go around to the steps, she 
reached out her hand for me to help her upon the plat- 
form. 

"For heaven's sake," I said, "what are you doing with 
all those German names?" 

She laughed happily as she said, "You think because 
I have an Irish name that they don't belong to me, but 
they were all my mother's people. Mother was born in 
Germany." 

When that young woman left the church that night, 
she carried with her the glad conviction that death's 
stream had been bridged — that "Life is ever lord of 
death, and love can never lose its own." 

These are but two incidents out of the many which 
came under my personal observation. They came to 
people who were not Spiritualists, and neither of whom 
had ever been in a Spiritualist meeting before. There 
was no way by which the medium could have gathered 
the information. 

This is a little tribute to a great worker. A tribute I 
am very glad to give to one who for seven years never 
failed to come to us as she agreed; and one who never 
failed to send the honest skeptic away convinced of the 
truth of her work, and assured that the life to which she 
has now gone, was very near. For her great work we 
are profoundly grateful; and so to Mary S. Vanderbilt, 
dweller in two spheres, we say Godspeed! 



70 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Winfield Scott Waldron 
Hallowell, Maine 

Mrs. Vanderbilt ever stood steadfast for what she 
believed to be right. She could be stern and severe when 
occasion called for it, yet her whole life, as I knew it, 
was filled with kindnesses that were typical of her great 
soul. One of her ambitions seemed to be to start young 
mediums on the right pathway so that their talents might 
be developed to be of use to humanity. She was ever 
ready and willing to assist every earnest endeavor along 
the line of spiritual unfoldment, and to recognize the gift 
of mediumship wherever she found it. 

Many people ask, "What was the secret of her great 
success ?" In answer, knowing her as I did. I would say 
it was a life so perfectly lived, so void of all selfishness, 
and her absolute fidelity to the cause that she loved. 

In private life, Mrs. Vanderbilt was ever loyal to her 
friends, and those of us who were fortunate enough to 
be counted as such have received a blessing that will be 
an inspiration through the years to come. 

There is not a village, city or hamlet within the Pine 
Tree State in which there is not some soul who thanks 
God for her — someone for whom her mediumship has 
opened the portals of Heaven, someone to whom she has 
brought assurance that a beloved soul toward whom the 
heart was yearning still lived and loved. 

Joseph F. Snipes and Charlotte Louise Snipes 
New York City, N. Y. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt's earnest and distinguished work en- 
deared her to all who value personal worth and positive 
proofs. She was a stately pillar in the temple of Truth. 
It will be difficult, if not impossible, to substitute another 
of equal strength and merit. Her wonderful ministry 
and her devotion will still continue under "natural law 
in the spiritual world." 



TRIBUTES 71 

J. F. Steckenreiter 

President General Assembly of Spiritualists, 

New York State 

Mrs. Vanderbilt was a courageous and valiant fighter 
for the truth. As a leader she always held the banner of 
Spiritualism high above the peepings and mutterings of 
the crowd. She has performed a great work on our side 
of life, and her reward in the higher life must be pro- 
portionately great. She has before her now a field of 
even greater usefulness and opportunity for the exploita- 
tion of her wonderful gifts. 

Jennie E. Dillon 
Hartford, Connecticut 

In the transition of Mary S. Vanderbilt, the cause of 
Spiritualism has lost a wonderful teacher, and her place 
cannot readily be filled. She stood for all that was 
honest and truthful in the work. The cause has been 
uplifted by the eloquent lectures she was able to give, 
and innumerable hearts have been comforted by convinc- 
ing messages through her instrumentality. 

To me this is a personal loss, for I have had her loyal 
friendship many years. Her home life and the work done 
there through her mediumship and not known to the 
outside world, will always be cherished in fond remem- 
brance. God speed her in her upward progress in the 
life she has entered just over there. 

Clara H. Edwards 
Brooklyn, New York 

The first time I heard Mary S. Vanderbilt lecture and 
give messages from the spirit world was sixteen years 
ago at Lake Pleasant camp meeting. At that time I knew 
nothing of Spiritualism or Spiritualists. Later I was 
pastor of the First Spiritualist Church in Brooklyn. One 
incident was indelibly stamped upon my mind at that 
time. 



72 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Judge Abram H. Dailey, president of the church so- 
ciety, addressed the audience briefly and then introduced 
a young Spaniard, who related this experience : 

A few months earlier, Mrs. Vanderbilt (then Mrs. 
Pepper), had told him in answer to a question, that if 
he would write to a certain street number in Madrid, he 
would come into touch with his father. He said his 
mother, since deceased, had brought him to America 
while still he was a little child, and that he had only a 
faint memory of his father. He followed Mrs. Vander- 
bilt's suggestion, wrote his father at the address she had 
given him, and received in reply a letter that brought 
them together. He was there that day to declare their 
gratitude, and to say that never thenceforth could he 
doubt the power of spirit loved ones. 

To me personally the teachings of Spiritualism as 
given through Mrs. Vanderbilt's instrumentality an- 
swered the longings of my innermost being, and the 
question of my responsibility for my acts in daily life; 
and made it clear that my harvest in the spirit would 
depend upon the kind of seed I sowed while here in the 
body; that I and none other would be held responsible 
for my actions or deeds, good or evil. 

During the last six years, I had the privilege of coming 
into closer touch with Mrs. Vanderbilt. From strangers 
we became acquaintances, then friends. This sacred 
friendship was mine until her transition, is mine now, 
and always will be mine until I may do something to 
forfeit my right to it. 

When trials and disappointments fell to my share, that 
dear, true, noble woman, Mary S. Vanderbilt, was ever 
ready to comfort me, to help me along my way. Through 
the shadows her sympathy shone, a beacon light to the 
tried soul within my body; for she was a wonderful 
woman, always ready to assist those in need, to stretch 
forth the hand of encouragement and sympathy to the 
one misunderstood or maligned. 

Humanity's friend, my beloved friend and counselor, 
I owe her much. 



TRIBUTES 73 

Warren Foss and Nellie Foss 
Camp Etna, Maine 

My acquaintance and friendship with Mrs. Vanderbilt 
began with her first appearance at Camp Etna as a 
speaker. The night of her arrival, I was standing watch- 
ing the people coming down from the hotel. Mrs. Van- 
derbilt (then Mrs. Pepper) was with Carrie Twing. 
Leaving her, Mrs. Vanderbilt walked directly up to me, 
put her arm in mine, and led me down toward the audi- 
torium, saying : "I want you." 

I never have ceased to be glad I was "wanted." Her 
friendship has been more to me than words can express. 
All through the years she has been my inspiration and 
my trusted friend. The wonderful hours I have spent 
with her are indeed "a string of pearls" to me. Only 
those who have entertained her in their homes know of 
her wonderful personality. I could fill pages with the 
marvelous things that transpired in our home while she 
and Bright Eyes were our honored guests; but if I 
singled out one, the rest would be still more wonderful. 

Camp Etna has indeed met with a great loss in the 
passing of Mrs. Vanderbilt into the larger life; but we 
feel — yes, we know — she has not left us. She will still 
come and minister to us. Her great soul still loves her 
camp, and we know that her voice will be heard, giving 
us wise counsel and cheer. Her work of comforting 
aching hearts is not finished. While I sorely miss the 
physical presence of the one through whom my loved 
spirit daughter manifested so perfectly, yet I am glad 
indeed for the greater opportunities given our teacher 
and friend. I have not lost either. They are both 
together here in the cottage, which was, and still is Mrs. 
Vanderbilt's camp home. Here in Evening Star Cottage, 
has she established her headquarters, and from here will 
her influence go out to the sorrowing ones of earth. 

Mary, I cannot write half I would, for my heart is 
too full. May you still continue to occupy your place 
in this home and from time to time give us your help 
and inspiration. 



74 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

George A. Fuller 
Greenwich Village, Massachusetts 

From the time Mary S. Vanderbilt first started out 
as a public worker I have known her intimately, and it 
has been my privilege many times to entertain her in 
my home. Undoubtedly thousands of the most stubborn 
skeptics were convinced by her work. She will be missed 
more than any other one worker in our ranks, on account 
of her varied gifts. Besides her wonderful psychic 
powers and her gift of oratory, she was a woman of 
remarkable executive ability, as evidenced by her work 
as president of Lake Pleasant and Etna Camps. She 
made both camps, not only a spiritual success, but a suc- 
cess from a material standpoint. In the last years of 
her life her psychic work became absolutely marvelous, 
and her progress was simply unparalleled in the history 
of our movement, 

Mark A. Barwise 
Bangor, Maine 

Rarely has the world known as wonderful a psychic 
as Mary S. Vanderbilt. For twenty-five years she held 
a unique place in American Spiritualism, the greater 
part of which time she labored in and seemed to specially 
belong to her beloved New England. New England 
loved her beyond any medium of the present generation. 

No American Spiritualist had a greater personal fol- 
lowing. Thousands date the beginning of their interest 
in Spiritualism from attending her public seances. The 
rapt attention and marked devotion in the upturned faces 
during one of Mrs. Vanderbilt's services when Bright 
Eyes was in control, never will be forgotten by those 
who used to occupy the platform with her. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt possessed a strong, vigorous and alert 
personality. She was powerful of intellect, intense in 
emotion, strong in her devotion to friends and equally 



TRIBUTES 75 

strong in her denunciation of enemies. She hated all 
artificiality, whether personal or institutional. She de- 
tested hyprocrisy, cant and deceit. She had that rare 
gift of retaining as friends those with whom she violently 
disagreed. 

Beneath an often bluff exterior, there was always the 
kindly heart. Her sympathies were always responsive 
to sorrow and trouble. Indeed, if any one motive dom- 
inated all the rest in keeping her constantly at her work, 
it sprang from a knowledge of the solace and comfort 
she and her controls brought to the heart-broken thou- 
sands who came to her meetings for such consolation as 
can come only from recognizing beyond a doubt that 
messages bearing internal proof of their authenticity 
are received from the loved ones just beyond the veil. 



Mrs. Mary T. Longley 
Washington, D. C. 

The passing of this rare medium and generous woman, 
Mary S. Vanderbilt, has left a deplorable and irremedi- 
able vacancy in the ranks of mediumship and of active, 
convincing Spiritualism. I have no doubt the spirit in- 
telligences who have the happiness and progress of hu- 
manity at heart will succeed in developing and bringing 
to light other wonderful mediums like unto this great one 
who has gone ; but even so, the world will sorely miss her, 
for she stood so many years in the front ranks of me- 
diumship, a leader and a teacher, preaching eloquently 
the gospel of Spiritualism and demonstrating with power 
and conviction the truths of immortality and of spirit 
communication. No need for me to eulogize her name 
or point to her multiplied good works. Her record is 
imprinted on the hearts of many thousands of grateful 
individuals who, through her ministrations, have received 
the tidings that their beloved are with them from beyond 
the grave; messages that have healed the broken-hearted 
and brought joy and light to those who had been in dark- 
ness and despair. 



76 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Mary S. Vanderbilt has ascended to the spheres of im- 
mortality, but we have no reason to believe that her work 
for humanity is ended. So thoroughly was she imbued 
with the idea of spiritual work and the consciousness that 
her mission was to heal the wounded heart, comfort the 
mourner and instruct the ignorant, that she must even 
now in her fined body and higher state still feel the need 
and be impressed with the consciousness that her scene 
of action and base of ministry have simply been trans- 
ferred to another and a brighter clime. 

She has gone into the great sunlight of the hereafter, 
following many years of brilliant public work as a speak- 
er, medium and all-around worker for the cause of 
Spiritualism and for humanity. The splendor of her 
ministrations and the wonders of her spiritual and in- 
tellectual unfoldment have accomplished much. Praise 
and honor belong to such as she. 

Dr. J. M. Peebles 
Los Angeles, California 

Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt has departed to the immor- 
tal courts of heaven. Who can take the place of this 
brilliant messenger, this self-poised and heaven-ordained 
soul, to demonstrate the future life? Who next will be 
taken from earth to make the heavens more radiant? 

Mrs. Vanderbilt never required praise for her won- 
derful work. Praise is for children, not for grandly 
illumined souls. She was, and is, highly appreciated. 
She is now enjoying the harvest of her sowing in the 
realms of immortality. 

Telegram from George B. Warne 
President N. S. A., to E. W. Vanderbilt 

April 28, 1919. 

Our cause has suffered an irreparable loss in Mrs. Van- 

derbilt's transition. Accept for yourself and her sister 

profoundest sympathy from fellow workers of the 

N. S. A., together with that of Mrs. Warne and myself. 



TRIBUTES 77 

M. J. Butler 
Boston, Massachusetts 

Frank, candid, devotedly sincere, our noble friend and 
co-worker, Mary Vanderbilt, while on earth preached and 
demonstrated the truth of our faith — Spiritualism. Her 
power to visualize things spiritual, to summon for us 
voices and spirits of the departed, brought untold hun- 
dreds into the fold of this faith. Her spirit has yielded 
up this life for a larger field of activity. 

After an earth life filled with perfect peace toward all, 
a life of generous benevolence to all, a life of universal 
good, a life that enriched all within its radiance — this 
noble soul has advanced to a field of larger activity. 



D. A. Lyman 

Columbia, Connecticut 

President Connecticut State Association of Spiritualists 

Greatness may attach to a person from various causes, 
but true greatness, it seems to me, must come from per- 
forming great service to humanity ; and there is no great- 
er service than answering the greatest of all questions : 
What of the life beyond the change called death? 

It was the life work of Mrs. Vanderbilt to answer this 
question. The joy that replaced tears and the certainty 
that took the place of uncertainty in the hearts of the 
thousands upon thousands of mourning humanity, testify 
that it was a work well done. 

She early came to abhor the petty things that too many 
mediums have encouraged which have little or no relation 
to the real work of the true medium. She detested for- 
tune-telling, or catering to seekers for information re- 
garding frivolous personal affairs. It was her greatest 
joy to comfort the sorrowing and convince the doubting. 
Thus she came to occupy the dual character of eloquent 



78 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

preacher and convincing message bearer, her messages 
being given as freely and accurately to an audience of 
ten thousand strangers as to a company of friends in the 
home circle. She never assailed the churches, either 
Catholic or Protestant. This attitude tended to attract 
members of churches to her meetings, and in thousands 
of instances she convinced them of the truths she was 
teaching. She made her meetings religious services really, 
and people went from them filled with a desire to do 
better work for humanity. 

The stars in her "crown of rejoicing" on the other side 
can never be numbered. 



S. M. Gile 

Etna, Maine 

Ex-Director of Camp Etna {Maine) Association 

The work of Mary S. Vanderbilt at Camp Etna has 
left an indelible impression upon the people, and the 
furrows of truth that she has ploughed, deep and wide, 
will cause a growth unequaled by any other worker whom 
the angels have sent among us. In my long life of 
eighty-six years I have listened to many message bearers, 
and can truthfully say I have never yet heard her equal 
in voicing communications from the world of souls. This 
remarkable woman and myself often clashed with differ- 
ences of opinion, both being naturally of a very positive 
nature; yet, while I remain, I would nurture carefully 
the seeds she has sown at Camp Etna, that they may grow 
and bloom in beauty as she had planned and longed for 
them to do. 

This great soul has been promoted — emancipated — re- 
leased ; and while I would not hold her to earthly condi- 
tions, I do sincerely hope the great All-Father will allow 
her still to minister unto the people of Camp Etna for a 
season longer, until we shall have grown capable of carry- 
ing on the great work she was doing here, loyally and 
well. 



TRIBUTES 79 

Frank A. Bishop 
Bangor, Maine 

Mrs. Vanderbilt's success at Camp Etna was phenom- 
enal. Her marvelous psychic powers attracted people 
from all parts of the state and beyond. Year after year 
her development was marked, and audiences numbering 
thousands have sat spellbound, with eager, upturned faces 
on which their soul hunger was plainly depicted, pleased, 
beyond their power to express, by the comforting words 
which fell from her inspired lips. 

Her long service at this camp covered seventeen years. 
During that time she endeared herself to a host of staunch 
friends, who not only admired her for her mediumistic 
gifts, but loved her for the zeal and devotion she dis- 
played, and for her consideration for and helpfulness 
toward other mediums. 

Mrs. H. C. Berry 
Boston, Massachusetts 

No one ever has come into the spiritual field of labor 
whose work has been recognized so widely as has that 
of Mary S. Vanderbilt. I shall always remember her as 
one of the best mediums I ever have known. 

No one was more tender in feeling for those who had 
not reached the heights she had. Truly she will be re- 
membered by what she has done, and hundreds all over 
the land will look up and call her blessed. 

Dr. Clarence B. C apron 

Norwich, Connecticut 

It gives me unbounded pleasure to express to the world 
through this memorial my gratitude for the knowledge 
I have received by being in her company and listening 
to the words of wisdom and comfort that fell from the 
lips of Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt. 



80 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Dr. William Critchley 
Lake Pleasant, Mass. 

The world never has had a better psychic than Mary 
Pepper Vanderbilt. She and her guides have converted 
more people to that true religion — Spiritualism, than all 
the other psychics in this country. 

I have known our dear Mary nearly forty years and 
have been in close touch with her as one of the board of 
directors of Lake Pleasant Camp Meeting Association. 
As her nearest neighbor for some years at our camp, I 
can truly say I never saw her equal as a teacher of her 
religion. She was unselfish in all things, loyal to her 
guides, considerate toward all religious denominations, 
and always doing kindly or charitable deeds for poor 
mortals who needed assistance. 

My first experience with her was in Worcester, Mass. 

I was visiting my daughter there. On Sunday noon I 
had an impression that I should apply for a pension on 
account of wounds received in 1863. I thought I would 
better write and send my statement to the Commissioner 
of Pensions at Washington. 

I did not tell anyone. I intended to mail the letter my- 
self. At half-past two that afternoon I started for the 
postoffice. At the corner of Pearl Street I saw a notice 
of a lecture by May S. Pepper at that hour. It was 
two-forty-five when I reached the hall, which I found was 
crowded to the doors. 

After the lecture, which was fine, Mrs. Pepper gave 
messages. The first of these was for me: 

"Someone calls for Doctor Critchley." 

I held up my hand. Somebody said: "Someone away 
back behind the post." Then said Mrs. Pepper : "Speak 
to me." 

I told her I was Doctor Critchley. The president said : 

"You are the one," and added, "There is a beautiful 
spirit here who says she is your wife. She spells the 
name 'Louisette.' " 

Said I : "That is the name." Then she said : 



TRIBUTES 81 

"She has brought Charles W. Gardner, and he says: 
'I was with you at noon and influenced you to write for 
your pension. You have the letter in your pocket now.' ' ; 

I did have it there, and produced it. I had forgotten 
to mail it. Then she said Charles Gardner wished to tell 
me I would receive my pension within six months. I did. 

I could cite many cases as wonderful as my own, but 
I will leave that to more able writers. Neither tongue 
nor pen can give to her and her guides the thanks they 
so richly earned. 

That she was persecuted by skeptics and by those so 
blind that they would not see, is well known to all; yet 
she kept right on with her fight for the truth, until the 
end. 



Mrs. Mattie B. Coy 
Guilford, Maine 

May I not be allowed to render my simple testimony 
concerning the sweetness and beauty of the life of Mary 
S. Vanderbilt among us here on earth? When I first 
began to listen to that great woman, and felt that I did 
not know her at all, but might only have the privilege 
of listening to her .inspired words, she came one season 
to the camp. Walking about the grounds with some of 
her friends, she chanced to pass me by. Stopping, she 
bent her head and kissed my cheek, and with a cheering 
word and pleasant smile passed on. 

That kindly incident never has faded from my memory. 
I often wondered how it was that this great woman, so 
gifted, so admired by all, should stop to notice me in my 
humble surroundings ; but the years that I have passed 
as a listener to her unselfish and beautiful ministrations 
have taught me of the nobility of her soul. 

I am glad that I met her along the pathway of earthly 
life; I am glad that she belonged to us here at Camp 
Etna; glad that we may yet feel and know her love and 
interest is still with us who are Camp Etna's members. 



82 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Mrs. Marie E. Chase 
Lynn, Massachusetts 

In the Fall of 1907, while Mr. Chase was president of 
the Lynn Spiritualist Association, it became my good for- 
tune to meet Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt. During the past 
years we have visited each other, and what was at first 
an acquaintance ripened into eternal love. Mrs. Vander- 
bilt was kind, just, generous and loyal; a truly big- 
hearted woman. 

Mr. and Mrs. K. had lost a beautiful daughter, seven- 
teen or eighteen years of age, and were heartbroken in 
consequence of the loss. While visiting in Lynn, they 
came to Cadet Hall, where Mrs. Vanderbilt was speak- 
ing. Mrs. Vanderbilt told them of their daughter's death, 
calling her name, age and the manner of her passing. 
She also told Mr. K. of his going into the garden just 
before the funeral and picking a rose, then going to the 
casket and touching his daughter's cheek with it, saying: 
"Vesta, if there is anything in Spiritualism, and you come 
back to me, you will tell me of this." To Mr. K. the 
message was proof positive of the life beyond. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt at another time told of a spirit she 
saw of a young man, who had come to help his sister, 
calling her by name and saying she was in great trouble. 
It seems the young woman had been deceived by a sailor 
and had a baby five months old. 

Every time he came into port he would promise to 
marry her, but always sailed without doing so. Mrs. 
Vanderbilt told her the sailer was in Boston and was to 
sail the next day, and that she must go to a certain pier 
the following morning if she wanted to catch him. 

After the meeting a lawyer who had heard the wonder- 
ful message came to Mrs. Vanderbilt and volunteered 
his services to assist the young Avoman. Through that 
wonderful message the sailor was found, and the young 
woman was married by special license before he left port 
the following morning. 

These are only two of the many wonderful and helpful 
messages Mrs. Vanderbilt has given to the world. 



TRIBUTES 83 

Mrs. Charlotte Louise Snipes 
New York City, N. Y. 

On August 19, 1917, at Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts, 
I attended a public seance given by Mrs. Vanderbilt 
After a long session, attended by numerous acknowledged 
tests, when I approached the table to recover a folded 
paper, submitted for psychometrization, Mrs. Vanderbilt 
suddenly turned to me and said: 

"Is your father in spirit life, and have you a brother 
John in earth life?" 

"Yeys/ 11 I answered. 

"Well, your father says he was not satisfied with the 
course of certain parties in the recent settlement of his 
affairs; that he was with you when his two partners 
wanted your mother to take notes in adjustment. He is 
very glad you refused, because if she had accepted their 
notes, she would never have received the partnership 
money. He also says he is greatly pleased with your 
management of his estate, with the aid of your husband 
and his lawyers; and that he came to you at Allenhurst 
immediately after his departure." 

Again, on August 21, 1918, Mrs. Vanderbilt publicly 
announced that a spirit friend was attending me, whose 
name sounded something like Mungins, and that my 
father was with him very often, as in life. 

"Was this man a preacher?" she asked. "I think so, 
because he tells me your father knelt at his footstool, and 
they are the same friends still. Your father says he has 
met Aunt Hannah and Aunt Margaret, and he was on 
hand to meet Uncle Charlie when he came over." 

In substantiation of this wonderfully accurate citation 
of names and facts about which neither the medium nor 
anyone else on the grounds knew anything whatsoever, I 
will state that my father passed away May 17, 1917, only 
three months previous to my visit to Lake Pleasant ; that 
I have a brother named John in earth life ; that my father 
had two partners with him, who proved unscrupulous 
and wanted to make a settlement on unfair terms, by 



84 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

note, but my husband and his counsel and myself de- 
manded and received cash payment; that father did pre- 
sent himself to us at Allenhurst, New Jersey, six hours 
before we heard that he was found dead in his bed in 
New York ; that the Rev. Mr. Mingins was for years my 
father's pastor and friend; that his two sisters in spirit 
were named Hannah and Margaret ; and that Uncle 
Charlie, father's brother, was translated six months later 
than himself. 

All of which establishes the clear vision and hearing of 
this modern seer, Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt. 

Mrs. Fannie J. Lamont 
New York City, N. Y. 

I have had so many wonderful messages from Mrs. 
Mary S. Vanderbilt that I never could tell one-half of 
them. 

Once a dishonest man left the home, and my mother 
missed her diamond rings. She was sure he had taken 
them, but Mrs. Vanderbilt insisted they were in the bed- 
room, in a box. She described the room and everything 
in it ; and the rings were found in a little drinking cup 
in the bureau drawer. 

Another time I took a lady and her little daughter to 
her, and the moment we entered her presence she said : 
"Ed, the father is calling for the child," and gave a very 
odd name, and told the cause of the father's death. 

Once again while I was at the New England camp she 
told us to stop in Connecticut on the way home. She 
gave me the name of my aunt, who told me my uncle 
would not be there very long, and to go and see him at 
once, which I did. The next year when I passed that 
way, he had gone home to his loved ones. 

Again, she told me to hurry home; that I was needed 
there, which was very true. 

I was given the names of many of my near and dear 
ones, describing them, so that I was positive they were 
there. I never can be thankful enough for all the help 
she gave to me. 



TRIBUTES 85 

Mrs. Nellie E. Abbott 
Lawrence, Mass. 

In 1900 I was invited by friend i to go to Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, to hear a speaker they said far excelled 
the average interpreter of Spiritualism. 

Upon arriving there I was attracted to an unassuming 
lady, and was very much surprised to learn she was none 
other than the speaker of the day, Mrs. Mary S. Pepper. 
It certainly seemed that she was not a stranger to any- 
one in the spirit world, for name after name fell from 
her lips through the agency of her controlling spirit, 
Little Bright Eyes. One after another had to admit that 
what was given was absolutely true, because proofs came 
with telling effect. Whenever possible, every member of 
my family made a special effort to hear this extraordi- 
narily gifted psychic. 

Times without number did she refute the line : "They 
have gone to that 'bourne from which no traveler re- 
turns.' " 

A short time after meeting Mrs. Pepper, I began to 
ask a few friends to my home to listen to the one who 
had begun to mean so much to me, and their interest was 
so great that I engaged a larger place. When the time 
arrived for her coming there was not room for those 
w T ho had become interested and had brought others. It 
seemed to me the heavens must have opened, for like 
lightning did those messages come, not one but what was 
recognized. After that, for nearly ten years, she came 
here annually, leaving a trail of light behind her. 

Once a Unitarian clergyman to whom she reached out, 
telling of his profession and speaking of those near and 
dear to him, afterward came to me and said : "I succumb. 
I can say nothing but praise for the one who has been 
chosen to bring me the first words of comfort I have 
received from my loved ones." 

On one occasion, shortly after one of Mrs. Vanderbilt's 
visits to our city, I met Mrs. Channing and spoke of the 
work Mrs. Vanderbilt and Bright Eyes had done in 



86 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Lawrence. Mrs. Channing exclaimed : "Mrs. Vander- 
bilt made me the happiest of women when Bright Eyes 
gave me a message from our boy, saying, 'This spirit is 
no stranger to me. I knew him in earth life. He used 
to divide his lunches with me when I was there.' Then 
I remembered the little Indian girl Wallie had often 
spoken to me about." 

I have many times seen her turn away from people of 
affluence to speak to others to whom earthly comforts 
seemed to have been denied. One time when she was 
besieged by many for private interviews, a lady said to 
her in scornful tones: "Will you tell me why you give 
your time to that old man, ragged and torn and almost 
beggarly, instead of to one who can compensate you lib- 
erally ?" Mrs. Vanderbilt turned to the woman and said : 
"Do you know that in the sight of God you cannot be 
compensated by money for giving comfort? That old 
man, ragged and torn as he was, without money, had a 
soul that cried out for help, and out in that other life to 
which he will go before long, this morning will be to him 
a revelation — and you with money cannot buy what that 
royal soul will receive. I would rather give to him in 
his need than to thousands who think only of their money 
and what it can buy." 

I have seen hundreds weep with joy upon hearing a 
message that had been given to some weary heart. 



Josephine Haslam 
Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts 



Mrs. Vanderbilt filled a unique place in Modern 
Spiritualism as a psychic and message bearer. She made 
more converts to the fact of spirit return than anyone 
else I ever knew. Combined with her sympathetic and 
generous nature, she left a vivid memory as a teacher. 
She carried the torch of truth valiantly, and blazed the 
trail for all who followed her. 



TRIBUTES 87 

George Bennett 
Abbott, Maine 

We Spiritualists of Maine feel that we have met with 
a personal loss in the passing of our friend and sister, 
Mary S. Vanderbilt, the loss of one who was ever ready 
to give comforting messages from the angel loved ones 
to the lonely and sorrowing of earth. She walked among 
us as, an angel of light, never passing by the poor, the 
humble, the old and needy. My experiences with her 
were most comforting, most beautiful, helping me to live 
and go on after my beloved wife passed to spirit, leaving 
me alone with the weight of years upon me. 

In 1916, when I closed the door of our little home to 
go to Etna, being all alone, I said aloud : "I am going to 
Etna today, Rose, to see if I can hear from you." 

I was seated in the meeting and when Mrs. Vanderbilt 
was giving her messages, she said : "Rose Bennett is here 
and says : "I came all the way down here with you today, 
George, and I was with you when you said you were 
going to Etna to see if you could hear from me." 

Now, I had not spoken to Mrs. Vanderbilt after ar- 
riving at the camp, and she did not know whether I had 
come that day or some other, for the camp had been in 
session five days. 

In 1917, through her generous kindness, she gave me 
a reading. My wife, Rose, came and said: "I am with 
you much of the time, George, in our pleasant little home. 
I prefer to sit by our own fireside in the chair, for which 
I made the cushion and where the bottom rolls under." 

This was a very good description of the chair in which 
she used to sit. 

At another time, while I was having a reading with 
Mrs. Vanderbilt, I asked: "Cannot you (Rose) send 
just a word to our children?" 

She said : "Tell Charles and Celia that I am with them 
much." 

I said: "That is not correct." She said: "Why, yes 
it is, Celia May." Which was correct, though we always 
called her May. 



88 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

At one time Mrs. Vanderbilt said to me : "Your sister, 
Edna Lizzie Hayden; your wife, Rose, and her mother 
are here." 

I said: "How does Rose's mother feel toward me 
now?" Mrs. Vanderbilt quickly answered: 

"She feels all right. She doesn't care anything about 
the old lamp now." 

There had been in the past quite a bit of hard feeling 
between the mother and myself about an old lamp that 
had been given to Rose by her mother fifty years ago, 
but outsiders knew nothing about it, and to me the evi- 
dence was very conclusive. 

My eyesight is now growing dim, my feet are almost 
touching the shores where my loved ones dwell, but I 
bless the name of Mary S. Vanderbilt for her great kind- 
ness to me, and for her wonderful work in the field of 
Spiritualism. She has truly been a benefactor. Peace 
to her arisen spirit! 



Mrs. Georgia A. Field 
Portland, Maine 

In the passing out of Mary S. Vanderbilt, the world 
of liberal and advanced thought has met with an irre- 
parable loss. She endeared herself to her Etna friends 
through many acts of kindness, and loving messages from 
the angel world. I myself received a very comforting 
message through her mediumship, from my arisen daugh- 
ter. At that time Mrs. Vanderbilt knew nothing about 
my family. 

With loving thoughts to her departed spirit I remain, 
as ever, one of her ardent admirers. This humble tribute 
is from one of the pioneer campers of Etna, a member 
of the Association, and long a listener to the great work 
of Mrs. Vanderbilt. 



TRIBUTES 89 

Mrs. Annie E. Woodman 
Norwich, Connecticut 

Words cannot express my feeling of respect and de- 
votion to this world-wide instructor and adviser, Mary 
S. Vanderbilt. I have entertained her in my home and 
find there is a vacant place caused by her transition; yet 
I feel her spiritual presence very often. These words I 
assign to her memory, in the most loving thought and 
remembrance. 

Mrs. Adelaide A. Clark and Mr. Albert N. Clark 

East Nassau, New York 

In the summer of 1902, after the passing of my brother 
in March of that year, I went to hear Mrs. Vanderbilt 
in the hope of getting a word from him. I waited anx- 
iously throughout the meeting, but no message came for 
me. As I was leaving the Temple, very sad, she looked 
at me and asked : "Who is Austin ?" At once I replied : 
"My brother, from whom I wish to hear." 

She gave me a message, very comforting as well as 
convincing of spirit return. To my husband she has 
given some wonderful messages, with names of his people 
— quite difficult to spell or pronounce. Her power as a 
psychic was beyond all others. 

Swami Abbedananda 

Lecturing from the same platform with Mrs. Vander- 
bilt, I came in personal touch with her real self, and 
found that she was one of those rare souls who come 
to help mankind on the path of spiritual enlightment. 
Her mission was great and she was extremely broad- 
minded. I was deeply impressed with her test demon- 
strations of spirit communications. She aroused the 
interest of the people to inquire into the realm after so- 
called death, and fulfilled her mission in a straightfor- 
ward and dignified manner. 



90 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Henri Sentner 
Boston, Massachusetts 

Modern Spiritualism has become a conscious factor in 
the lives of men, but not without the untiring efforts of 
those pioneer workers who demonstrated the fact that 
beyond the grave there looms a greater life. Living a 
life devoted to that sublime truth, Mary Pepper Vander- 
bilt gave herself to the world of spirit, that there might 
be proclaimed to earth anew the glad tidings of great joy. 

Times without number I have seen her stand before 
audiences where many came to laugh but departed with a 
sense of something new and wonderful. I have seen 
eyes filled with tears of joy, and the soul of the individual 
lighted up as through her inspired lips came a message 
from father, mother, or some other loved one — a message 
delivered in the clear, convincing manner that distin- 
guished her. 

One can speak with authority only by reason of per- 
sonal experience. Therefore, I feel that I may add my 
feeble tribute to the most wonderful medium and most 
glorious woman I ever met. She was a friend, and that 
means much in this world of strife; a friend tried and 
true, as staunch a friend as ever I hope to meet, either 
here or hereafter. To me she was a continual source of 
inspiration. Her words of kindness and sympathy held 
me steady in times when all seemed black. Life was 
brighter and the world is better because of her having 
lived in it. 

Mr. and Mrs. T. P. Reardon 
Hartford, Connecticut 

We owe much to Mrs. Vanderbilt. She opened the 
way for Mr. Reardon (who was a skeptic), to come into 
the full realization of this truth. All know the value of 
her work. Possibly silence is more potent than words. 
We know her day is not o'er, that her morning is just 
beyond. 



TRIBUTES 91 

Mary Drake Jeanne 

Camp Etna, Maine 

Secretary of the Maine Spiritualist Association 

A great soul, baptized with the trials and sorrows of 
earth, was sent by the loving All-Father to minister unto 
the children of Camp Etna for a time — but ere we had 
learned to appreciate fully the value and beauty of so 
priceless a jewel, she, our beloved president, teacher, 
friend, was called to grace the council chambers of the 
spirit-world with her royal presence; and we are left 
wondering how we can go on without her physical pres- 
ence to assist and guide us. A great light has departed 
from our midst to shine in regal splendor in that home 
Out There, of which she has told us. 

Coming to Camp Etna in the earlier years of her me- 
diumship, continuing her annual and in later years her 
semi-annual visits, her marvelous work among us is far 
beyond the power of my humble pen to portray. We at 
Camp Etna have in her ministrations been indeed a fa- 
vored people. Our gratitude never can be fully expressed. 
May no shadows separate her emancipated spirit from us ! 



John J. Hamilton 
Santiago, Chile 

There are some who feel that the taking from the 
physical plane of an entity so highly evolved and capable 
of doing such a great good work is indicative of the lack 
of a universal intelligence, while others who have inter- 
ested themselves in such subjects as reincarnation and 
karma feel that in all probability just the contrary is true ; 
that it is by design that such souls come into physical 
incarnation, serve their time in helping, and then pass 
on at the proper moment to join the ranks awaiting them 
where they may serve to greater advantage; then to be 
reincarnated at a later period, with the same group of 



92 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

evolving entities, for the purpose of leading them on to 
higher thought. 

Whether or not reincarnation is a fact in nature, Mrs 
Vanderbilt's mediumship was no doubt convincing and 
consoling to many a fair-minded skeptic. 

For a long time I have been interested in Spiritism, 
Spiritualism and allied subjects, for the purpose of study- 
ing them, and have gone to many capable mediums. Pre- 
vious to hearing Mrs. Vanderbilt I never had witnessed 
the work of a medium which was really convincing be- 
yond all doubt of the existence of human intelligence 
after the death of the physical body. I heard her on three 
different occasions and every reading was a masterpiece. 

No one who has studied human evolution could possi- 
bly have come into contact with her without realizing the 
presence of a highly evolved entity. Believers in rein- 
carnation must have felt that during a past incarnation 
they had done something good that entitled them to the 
privilege of knowing her in this one. 



Mary E. Donovan 
Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts 

No tribute is too great to pay to the memory of one 
who has been so splendidly able to soften the blow 
tohen those who are nearest and dearest to us enter into 
the life of the Great Beyond. Mary Pepper Vanderbilt 
convincingly demonstrated the philosophy of immortal 
life, teaching that the passing of the soul is a step for- 
ward on the highway of progress, and not a thing to 
grieve over. 

So we console ourselves that her mission on this plane 
of action — so far as her visible presence was concerned 
— was ended; that need for her wonderful gift was far 
greater Out There, where she has no doubt taken her 
place in the ranks of great workers who have preceded 
her. Truly can her co-workers and friends bow to the 
inevitable and say, "Our loss is their gain." 



TRIBUTES 93 

Florence E. Hawes 
Camp Etna, Maine 

I am very glad to add my testimony of the great ability 
and wonderful psychic powers of our dear arisen presi- 
dent, Mary S. Vanderbilt. I have been a regular attend- 
ant at the meetings held at Camp Etna for many years, 
and at times have been astounded at the accuracy with 
which she could deliver messages to many different ones, 
sometimes delving into family history, and giving names 
and relationships with wonderful accuracy. Camp Etna 
and the cause of Spiritualism have certainly met with an 
irreparable loss in the passing to higher life of this dearly 
loved one, but we feel she will still work with us as 
faithfully as ever. 

Mrs. Mary D. Luey 
Brooklyn, New York 

The memory of my dearest friend, Mrs. Mary Van- 
derbilt, will always live with me, as one who always 
stood ready to do all she could at any time, who saved 
my life in a great sorrow, and showed me the light. 

H. A. BUDDINGTON 

Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts 

Mary S. Vanderbilt ! A name that fascinated thou- 
sands who for years assembled in the camp at Lake 
Pleasant, and elsewhere. Her mediumship rapidly ad- 
vanced in ability and accuracy from year to year until it 
won the respect of all hearers ; and her tender sympathy 
captivated the bereaved, the broken-hearted mourners. 

She rose from humble surroundings to be one of the 
most convincing mediums to be found in the ranks of 
the world workers in spiritual fields. Her influence as a 
message bearer became a leading power all over the 
North American continent. 



94 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

H. S. Berry 
Editor of The Banner of Life 

In the passing of Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt, Spiritual- 
ism loses one of its most able and convincing exponents ; 
in her lecture work she was second to none, and her 
messages were convincing and many times startling in 
their accuracy, and clearness. She was without a supe- 
rior in her chosen work, and has convinced thousands of 
the truth of our glorious philosophy. A great hearted, 
generous woman, a true friend, a strong opponent of 
what she conceived to be wrong, possessed of a com- 
manding personality, and a strong personal magnetism, 
she demanded and received the respect of all who heard 
her. 

Rev. Tillie U. Reynolds 
Troy, N. Y. 

It was my privilege at different times to spend weeks 
with Mrs. Vanderbilt in the home life, and thus I knew 
her better than I could have done in camps or meetings. 
Having also worked as an officer with her I can testify 
to her wonderful executive ability. My pen is weak 
when it attempts to portray anything regarding this most 
gifted medium, whose works do follow her. As we loved 
her in the body, so we love her in spirit, and ask that she 
come to aid us in the work so dear to her and to us all. 

Aurin F. Hill and Izetta B. Sears-Hill 
Boston, Massachusetts 

Knowing Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt for several years, 
we respected her for her activity and earnestness and 
success in the cause of Spiritualism. . . . We shall 
miss her visible presence, though we know that she is 
still an active spirit among us. 



TRIBUTES 95 

Mrs. W. F. Bogue and* Family 
Norwich, Connecticut 

Dear Friend: — We wish to extend to you our heart- 
felt sympathy in your bereavement. We can truly mourn 
with you, for her going has taken from all of us a cher- 
ished and sympathizing friend. May the realization of 
her nearness comfort you in the days to come. 

Abbie A. Averill 
Lynn, Massachusetts 

In the work for Spiritualism I have been associated 
with Mrs. Vanderbilt for twenty-five years. Also I have 
entertained her many times in my home, and have been 
entertained at her summer home. My appreciation of the 
many sterling traits in her character and my admiration 
of her wonderfully generous nature have increased with 
every passing year. In all my association with her she 
has never failed to justify my faith in her absolute in- 
tegrity of purpose and an ever-increasing desire to give 
her very best to the cause to which her life was dedicated. 
In her passing, Spiritualism has been deprived of one of 
its strongest pillars. 

Luther W. Bixby 

Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts 

Lake Pleasant will not for many years recover from 
the loss of this great medium, Mary S. Vanderbilt. Her 
work extended far outside the ranks of Spiritualists, and 
attracted many each year from the surrounding towns 
to obtain messages, or to be given tests of spirit individ- 
uality that would convince the most skeptical. The lec- 
tures given by her guides were educational along spiritual 
lines, and uplifting. We hope her spiritual guidance will 
continue to impress many who come here each year, that 
we may progress on this plane and so meet her hereafter, 
with the fruits of her labor among us. 



96 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Martin L. Reynolds 

Sidney, Maine 

I have known Mrs. Vanderbilt favorably and well for 
many years, and feel at this time to pay my simple tribute 
to the worth of one who, I believe, has brought us nearer 
to our departed loved ones of other days, than anyone 
who ever passed from life to enrich the realm of the 
spirit-world. 

N. A. Lee 

Lynn, Massachusetts 

A woman of sterling worth ; fearless and aggressive 
toward the enemies of Spiritualism ; always ready to help 
the cause. Outspoken to friend and foe; never saying 
behind one's back that which she would not say before 
one's face. She has made a name in Spiritualism never 
to be forgotten. 

Will E. Bartell 

Bellows Falls, Vermont 

Mrs. Vanderbilt has given comfort and consolation to 
many a hungry soul, and her life has been full of bless- 
ings to humanity. She was truly one of the greatest mes- 
sengers between the two worlds. May her progression 
be limitless in the new life. 

Oscar A. Edgerly 

Chicago, Illinois 

Acquainted as I was with Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt 
for over thirty years, from my heart I can say, in com- 
mon with all Spiritualists, that to know her was to appre- 
ciate her worth and to realize that she was possessed of 
heavenborn inspiration that made her a light bearer mid 
the dark shadows of earth life. That she has gone from 
our midst makes her none the less a guide with con- 
sciousness illuminated to aid and bless. 



MARY S. VANDERBILT 97 



MRS. MARY S. VANDERBILT 
Teacher, Psychic, Friend 

In the softly fading twilight, 

In the hush of the world's busy din, 
When Nature seems in sympathy 

With the spirit's longing within — 
A longing for those who have left us, 

For a glimpse of the dear, loving face, 
A touch of the hand that we cherished, 

A longing for the tender embrace — 

'Twas thus that I sat in the silence 

Grieving and deeply distressed; 
Fast falling tears from a sad heart 

Refused to be longer repressed. 
Shall I never hear her dear voice 

Or see her sweet smile again? 
Has she really, entirely, left us, 

Shall our longing be all in vain? 

We would not think she would go away, 

We, so much, needed her here. 
She was Teacher, Helper, Friend, 

And all that to us was most dear. 
She had taught us the meaning of life; 

She had helped to lighten the way; 
This wonderful Psychic and friend 

Who from the Truth no one could sway. 



98 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

The spirit's longing is answered, 

They come from their spirit home; 
They lift the cloud of sadness, 

We are no longer alone. 
The spirit had touched MY spirit, 

Time and space were naught to me; 
She answered my weeping impatience, 

She seemed very real to me. 

As she spoke to me in the silence 

And made my rest complete, 
The dear voice was just as tender, 

The loving smile just as sweet. 
"I am FREE, as the air of morning, 

Free as a bird on the wing; 
The flesh no longer confines me 

xA.nd a blessing to you I bring. 

I live, and love those who love me, 

Death has not touched my soul; 
I shall love and work forever, 

Shall live while eternities roll. 
Then weep not or mourn for the parting, 

There IS 'only a thin veil between/ 
I visit you often, my dear ones, 

Am near you even though unseen." 

O, many times she has told us 

That she stood in the open door — 
The door was left still open 

When the angels ferried her o'er. 
Her promise is sure and sacred; 

I know she is loyal and true; 
Her message is full of comfort, 

She WILL come to me and to you. 

Flora F. Thompson. 
Fayville, Massachusetts. 



CHAPTER X. 

RESOLUTIONS 

First Spiritualist Ladies' Aid Society, 
Boston, Mass. 

Resolved, That we, as members of the First Spiritualist 
Ladies' Aid Society, sincerely mourn her departure from 
this physical life, and extend to the bereaved husband, sis- 
ter and mourning friends, our heartfelt sympathy in their 
great loss. Her task on earth is done, but we shall sit 
with her in the brightness of our souls, and there wreath 
our chosen flowers of memory for her. It is by such 
souls, unselfish, energetic, versed in its traditions, jealous 
of its good name, that Spiritualism has reached a high 
plane among the religions of today. In the fadeless light 
of the Summerland she surely finds sweet companionship, 
and with those spirits who have gone before, waits to 
give us greetings when we shall answer the call of the 
Great Spirit. 

Compounce Spiritualist Association 

Resolved, That we, the members of the Compounce 
Spiritualist Association, do here and now pay tribute to 
that noble soul, Mary S. Vanderbilt, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
whose passing to the Summerland has left a space in the 
ranks of the workers in Modern Spiritualism that never 
can be filled ; 

A whole-souled woman, a tried friend, a medium dis- 
tinctly in a class by herself, never equalled in the quality 
of her work and the divine self-sacrificing manner in 
which she devoted her life and energy to the cause she 
loved. 



99 



100 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

For eighteen years faithfully and well has she served 
this Association as speaker and message bearer. During 
that time thousands have been comforted ; and, because 
of that comfort, blest the name of Mary S. Vanderbilt. 
Through her ministrations thousands have been turned 
toward the light that shines beyond the change called 
death. 

Since 1911, in her capacity as president of this Associ- 
ation, her wisdom and foresight have guided us as the 
faithful pilot ever does the ship within his care. Now 
the door of immortality has opened, and the angels have 
called unto themselves this one who served them so faith- 
fully, cheerfully and well, even when the tongue of puny 
souls wagged mightily, and the easier course would have 
been to leave the ship helpless to toss about on the sea of 
strife. 

May we who honor her realize that our loss has been 
her gain. We extend our sincere sympathy and our 
greatest comfort to those dear ones left behind; those 
who knew the celebrated medium — the good, true, staunch 
woman, who looked the whole world straight in the face. 
May they understand that her mighty soul, that never 
was known to desert a friend here, will not desert them 
in the Land Out There. May their grief be lightened by 
the knowledge she so wonderfully exemplified. 

Connecticut State Spiritualist Association 

Resolved, That in the passing to spirit life of our sister 
and co-worker, Rev. Mary Scannell Vanderbilt, the cause 
of Spiritualism has been deprived of the most powerful 
and convincing exponent of the fact of life beyond the 
grave and of the communion of spirits with mortals of 
our times. For more than thirty years she has brought 
comfort to the sorrowing, hope to the despondent, and 
conviction to the doubting. She was a true medium, con- 
secrating her best physical and mental powers to the work 
of so blending the physical and spiritual forces that the 
world might know for a certainty that the death of the 



RESOLUTIONS 101 

physical is but the new birth of the spiritual. She was a 
true martyr. She gave her life as a sacrifice that the 
world might know "There Is No Death." 

The Connecticut State Spiritualist Association mourns 
the loss of an efficient officer, an attractive, eloquent and 
forceful public speaker, and a genuine bearer of messages 
from spirits to mortals. 

The sympathy and consolation of its members is hereby 
extended to the husband and sister, whose grief will be 
softened by the knowledge that their loved one will ever 
be present in spirit until the glad meeting- time "Over 
There." 

Etna Spiritualist Association of Etna, Maine 

Resolved, That mere words cannot fittingly express the 
magnitude of our irreparable loss; that greater medium- 
istic gifts never were bestowed upon mortal ; that greater 
zeal in their manifestation has never been displayed; that 
more unswerving loyalty to the cause has never been 
shown. A truer friend has not been found. Her mem- 
ory will live ; her influence will increase through the ages. 
It is further 

Resolved, That we hereby extend to our esteemed 
brother, Mr. E. W. Vanderbilt, and to our dear sister, 
Miss Harriet Scannell, our deep sympathy in their sad 
bereavement, and we commend them to the consolations 
of our noble faith, which teaches us that our departed 
sister still lives, surrounded by loving friends, in a realm 
of beauty, where love and service are the uplifting ideals 
for which they strive. 

Lynn Spiritualist Association of Lynn, Mass. 

Resolved, That we, the members of the Lynn Spiritual- 
ist Association of Lynn, Massachusetts, feel that a large 
portion of the prosperity that has been attended our 
society since its inception, has been due to the wonderful 
mediumship and wise counsel of our arisen sister; 



102 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Resolved, That we, in common with Spiritualists all 
over the country, do sincerely mourn her departure from 
our midst; and we hereby renew our pledge to do all in 
our power to further the best interests of the cause to 
which she devoted her life; 

Resolved, That the sympathy of this society is hereby 
extended to her beloved companion, her cherished sister, 
and all other mourning friends and relatives ; may they be 
comforted and sustained in this, their hour of sorrow. 

Maine Spiritualist Association 

Our beloved sister, teacher, co-worker, a friend to all 
humanity, Mary S. Vanderbilt, has obeyed the summons 
and responded to the call, "Come higher." Her long and 
patient struggle for expression on this side of life where 
still she might minister to the hungry and desolate ones 
of earth, ended on the morning of April 27, 1919, when 
death, so-called, came with silent tread and stooped to 
kiss her feet at sunrise; and her tired and beautiful soul 
found release and repose within the heavenly portals of 
peace and love among those great souls who embody wis- 
dom, truth and light. 

We stand in reverence to do her homage, even as she 
stood before the altar of truth, staunch and steadfast, 
firm and sure in her knowledge, her realization of con- 
tinuous life — a knowledge of which she gave ample proof 
through her own psychic power, her highly developed 
soul. Today of all days, through the law of vibration, 
her emancipated spirit is blending with ours. She is close 
beside us — 

"So near methinks I feel her — hand — 
So closely lies the Borderland." 

So let us of this Association draw closer together, dear 
brothers and sisters, in love and truth, and meet our dear 
sister on an equal plane. Let us meet her at least half 
way as she reaches down to us over the roadway of at- 



RESOLUTIONS 103 

tainment and uplift. To say we shall not miss her familiar 
physical form would be all in vain ; but let us try to emu- 
late her many virtues, and carry on the work she so ably 
expounded. 

O, dear arisen one, how our hearts yearn for thee — 
Thou who hast overcome, and thy spirit been set free ! 

Go forth once more, unhampered now by any earthly bar, 
For thou hast cast aside the dross, and the gates have 
swung ajar. 

Resolved, That we, the Maine Spiritualists' Association, 
in convention assembled, here mourn the absence of our 
distinguished sister and shall in memory ever hold her in 
the highest esteem; that the Etna Camp Association has 
lost one who gave of her time and strength unceasingly 
for its upbuilding; who was its honored president, bene- 
factor and friend, for many years. Her place in the 
hearts of humanity never can be quite filled again. 



CHAPTER XI 

DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 

to 

MARY S. VANDERBILT 

Camp Etna, Maine 
Sept. 18, 1919 

Camp Etna, Maine, has been the scene of many noted 
gatherings during the forty-three years of its existence. 
From its rostrum have been heard talented men a,nd 
women who have voiced the message of Spiritualism to 
the assembled throngs. Yet never were more impressive 
ceremonies held than those attending the dedication of 
the imposing monument that marks the final resting place 
of all that is mortal of its beloved president, Mary S. 
Vanderbilt. 

The site chosen was Barrett Square, named for Harri- 
son D. Barrett, the son of Maine, and first president of 
the National Spiritualists' Association. The committee 
having the matter in charge sought long and diligently for 
something fitting to express the love of the people for 
America's gifted medium, who had labored so long and 
earnestly in their midst. No ordinary monument, chis- 
eled by the hand of man, would do. Finally, in the great 
laboratory of Nature, where it had taken millions of 
years to perfect, was found a huge boulder, so perfect in 
every way that the committee having the matter in charge, 

104 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 105 

composed of Mark Barwise, Frank Bishop, and Mrs. 
Frost, decided that no further search need be made. As 
the medium was herself divinely inspired, it was fitting 
that God's handiwork alone should stand before the world 
to commemorate the work she had wrought during her 
life's journey. 

The huge boulder weighs about twelve tons, and was 
transported from a farm about thirteen miles from Etna, 
on a truck, drawn by six horses. Upon the face of the 
boulder is simply inscribed 

Mary S. Vanderbilt 
1919 

No need to tell who she was — the smallest child in 
Etna's Lyceum knows — while the gray-haired sire bows 
in grief because of the appalling loss that has fallen upon 
Etna in the loss of her physical presence. 

An iron railing twenty feet square encloses the monu- 
ment. Just behind the boulder has been erected a huge 
flagstaff, the gift of her lifelong friend, Warren R. Fales, 
from which floats a magnificent star spangled banner, 
presented by Mr. E. W. Vanderbilt, a veteran of the 
Civil War. 

The day was resplendent with beauty. Loving hands 
made the enclosure bright with flowers. Lake Pleasant 
Camp was represented with a floral piece which rested at 
the base of the boulder, while upon the top of it was a 
floral tribute from Etna Camp. 

Mrs, Vanderbilt's chair was decorated with evergreens, 
purple and white asters, and a speaking photograph 
of the arisen one, the gift of Mr. Vanderbilt, was placed 
in the chair. Everyone seemed to sense her presence, and 
commented upon the fact. 



106 MARY S. VANDERBILT 



The Memorial Services 



The memorial services were held in Barrett Square. 
Vice-President Samuel L. Packard presided. A tempo- 
rary platform had been erected for the speakers under 
the shade of one of the beautiful trees. The park was 
thronged with friends from far and near, who gathered 
for this special occasion. 

Promptly at 2 p. m. the services opened with the sing- 
ing of "Only a Thin Veil Between Us," by Professor C. 
Leroy Lyon, after which Rev. F. A. Wiggin, pastor of 
Unity Church, Boston, Mass., gave an invocation. 

Amidst a most impressive silence, Mr. E. W. Vander- 
bilt, husband of the arisen one, then stepped inside the 
railing and deposited the ashes of his beloved wife and 
companion in a spot especially prepared for their recep- 
tion. A moment of silence, then rose again the voice of 
the singer, "Only Remembered by What We Have Done." 
Each one present was filled with emotion as the thoughts 
came of how much Mrs. Vanderbilt had done for Etna. 
Tears came unbidden into the eyes of the throngs of 
people who listened to the expressive words, "Only re- 
membered by what we have done." 

Mrs. M. E. Cadwallader, editor of The Progressive 
Thinker, Chicago, Illinois, a lifelong friend of Mrs. Van- 
derbilt, was the first speaker. Her address, in part was 
as follows: 



Address of M. E. Cadwallader 

"Away from the turmoil, strife and vicissitudes of daily 
life, we have gathered from far and near to consecrate 
this hour, to dedicate this shrine, to the memory of our 
beloved and arisen sister, Mrs. Mary S. Vanderbilt. 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 107 

"Every heart has a shrine, every home a sacred spot, 
sacred to the memory of our loved ones. Therefore we 
have come to Etna Camp to dedicate a shrine which, in 
all the ages to come, shall mark the enduring work of the 
one who but yesterday was in our midst, as well as to 
pledge ourselves anew to carry on her mighty task. 

"It took ages to prepare for the coming of such a gifted 
soul. The angels bending low at her cradle imprinted on 
her brow a seal which set her apart from her fellow men. 
To her was given, as a gift from Heaven, a power divine, 
enabling her to go forth as an evangel to minister to the 
sorrowing. She became a comforter. If every one to 
whom Mrs. Vanderbilt gave a message from an arisen 
loved one, bidding them know that father, mother, hus- 
band, wife or child, still lived in the land of immortality, 
could but place a single grain of wheat upon this shrine, 
they would be as numberless as the sands upon the sea- 
shore. 

"How fitting it is that in Maine her ashes should rest, 
here where she wrought with such enduring power. Firm 
as the rock which now marks their resting place is the 
foundation which she built during the years she labored 
among you. Here it stands as a mighty sentinel, which 
shall speak to the coming generations. 'Behold, here I 
have wrought for you; where I planted you must water; 
you must reap the harvest of the seed I have sown. Keep 
on with my work, beloved, for I shall keep step with 
you/ 

"Hew well she labored ! New England was dear to her 
heart — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut and Rhode Island, she served until in every 
hamlet, village, town and city, the name of Mary S. Van- 
derbilt became a household word because of her power 
as a comforter. 

"She sought neither fame nor the approbation of men 
or women, turning neither to the right nor to the left, as 
with clearer vision she followed the light as it was given 



108 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

to her. Fearless in her defense of right,* strong in her 
determination to do and dare, she made her impress upon 
the minds and souls of all who meet her. 

"Beloved by you of Etna, she returned a thousandfold 
your affection ; yet far from New England were her 
marvelous gifts known. Wherever Spiritualism is known 
there also will be found the records of her many gifts, for 
she was known the length and breadth of the land, as 
well as across the seas. 

"Dear friends, Mrs. Vanderbilt is not dead. She 
speaks to you today, and will speak to you as long as time 
will endure. In the rustling of the wind you will hear 
her; in the babbling of the brook; in the beauty of the 
flower she will speak. But in no more potent way to you 
here in Etna will she speak than in the tones of the bell 
calling you to meeting. You remember how she loved to 
ring the bell. It was to her a sacred, loving service, for 
twenty-four years ago, at Onset, she asked her friend 
Dr. H. B. Storer, 'Why do you ring the bell? Let some- 
one else do it,' and he responded, 'I love to ring the bell ; 
I am calling my people to come, calling them to come and 
be spiritually fed.' So that is what the ringing of the bell 
meant to her — 'I am calling you to come.' In the future, 
when you hear it peal forth, remember, it is speaking to 
you of her. Listen to her, and heed the call to come up 
higher. 

"Beloved friends, doubt not that she is near. Her in- 
terest in Etna Camp still endures. Love still persists be- 
yond the grave. Spiritualism teaches there is no death ; 
that our loved ones live and love us still. Let this shrine 
speak to your hearts of her great love for you and of 
yours for her, and in the days and years to come, take 
greater heart in carrying forward the work she started, 
until the harvest shall be great indeed. So, as a symbol 
of the garnering from the field of her endeavor, I place 
this sheaf of wheat upon this sacred shrine, to emphasize 
the harvest she has reaped from the seed she has sown. 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 109 

"Yes, we shall meet her again ; again we shall hear her 
words of love, again see her radiant smile, in that land of 
immortality toward which we are journeying home. Re- 
member, beloved, she is not dead; but, all bright and 
beautiful, our dear sister treads the aisles of eternity. 
She is not dead !" 

Following Mrs. Cadwallader's address, Professor and 
Mrs. Lyon rendered, "Where the Roses Ne'er Shall 
Wither," after which Rev. F. A. Wiggins delivered the 
following address: 



Rev. F. A. Wiggins' Address 

"We have this hour performed the sacred, loving ser- 
vice of depositing the ashes of the transient temple 
through which a life, dear to us all, functioned with won- 
derful power. 

"It is an unusual force, in the individual, which, amid 
the tremendous competition of the hour, is sufficient to 
leave its impress upon these times. Nature's divine pow- 
er, in this specific life, left its impress upon the time in a 
great variety of conspicuous, real loving service, but in 
none of these expressions more notably than in a spiritual 
endeavor to enrich the world's thought and knowledge of 
a life beyond the portals of the grave. She made earnest 
and forceful endeavor to establish in the mind of mortals 
a real happiness, by a thorough removal of the pangs of 
sorrow caused by the transition of dearly beloved souls 
from their temples of time to their eternal abodes of 
heavenly bliss and delight. From time to time souls have 
been born into this world who have, by their spiritual 
endeavor, saved it from being engulfed by the ceaseless 
incoming waves of cold materiality. For all such souls 
we would pay our tribute of loving remembrance. While 
recalling in our minds the names of many such, and the 



110 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

helpful works which they have wrought, today stands out 
most prominently in our thoughts the name of our arisen 
friend and sister, Mary S. Vanderbilt, whose ashes, here 
in this sacred spot, now mingle with the dust of the ages. 

"Above these ashes loving hands have placed this stone, 
to mark this hallowed spot. Enduring as is the granite, 
far more lasting will be the life's influence of her whose 
loving service to mankind it is designated to perpetuate. 
These simple services, I am sure, are absolutely void of 
every aspect of conventionality. I am equally certain 
that they are natural and spontaneous, and flow forth 
from loving hearts. 

"The individual hearts here, in this multitude of loving 
friends, are as rivulets of a voluntary flowing, and in that 
flowing, silently they express a thought which shall live 
even after all these streamlets shall have mingled their 
energy in divine unison with that mighty ocean of souls 
just out there in the beyond. 

"Only one year ago Mary S. Vanderbilt, in whose 
honor and to whose memory these services are being held, 
walked in your midst here at Etna, a giant of spiritual 
strength, a medium of comfort to your souls. We should, 
and we do, rejoice that, even under the stress of the 
present condition, a time when the absence of her phys- 
ical presence strikes us all with an almost appalling 
strangeness, we feel ourselves under no necessity of re- 
sorting to calling Mrs. Vanderbilt 'dead,' as millions of 
people in this world, under similar circumstances, would 
be compelled to do, and for this, our especially favored 
privilege, we owe our deepest gratitude to our Spiritu- 
alism, and to such a revealment of it as was made to us 
by Mary S. Vanderbilt, who, though absent in the phys- 
ical, is nevertheless really present with us in all that 
constitutes a veritable personality. 

"She taught the philosophy of continued and eternal 
living; that so-called death is -but a valued change and 
simply an event in never-ceasing life. By virtue of her 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 111 

high endowment of spiritual mediumship, she thoroughly 
and convincingly demonstrated as a truth or fact of Na- 
ture that rich philosophy to which she so eloquently gave 
utterance. 

"She also practicalized the philosophy and its demon- 
strations to the every-day human life right here among 
our purely human activities. She taught that a little bit 
of selfishness is too much, while a whole lot of generosity 
is not enough ; that a little bit of strife is too much, while 
a whole lot of peace is not enough; that a little bit of 
hate is too much, while a whole lot of love is not enough ; 
that the world may have too much selfishness, but can 
never have too much generosity; that it may have too 
much war, but it can never have too much peace; that it 
may have too much hate, but it can never have too much 
love. Mrs. Vanderbilt taught this, and far more, and 
vital is the fact that she taught this by both precept and 
example. It can never be justly denied that such teach- 
ings are sure to inspire in all who heed them a holy spirit 
of truth and a desire to seek diligently the highest ideals 
in all that pertains to life and its far-reaching purposes, 
leading to a conscience void of all offense to God and to 
our fellowmen. 

"Well she might have cried out from the depths of her 
soul, 'O, temporal O, mores!' (O, the times! O, the 
customs!) for our arisen sister, teacher, demonstrator of 
eternal truth, and co-worker, lived and labored in times 
which in spiritual endeavor 'tried men's souls/ By the 
chart of spirit inspiration, and the compass of spirit help- 
ers, she knew the way, and by a fearless courage she 
steered the ship of Spiritualism in the exact course laid 
down by the Divine Navigator. 

"She labored, and she loved her labor, and although 
time may seem not to have overpaid her, eternity will not 
forget, nor will her reward be meager. To us, and to 



112 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

unborn generations, will be the earthly blessings. I can 
seem to hear her exclaim to us, speaking from her spirit 
home: 

'I need not be missed, if my life has been bearing 
(As its Summer and Autumn moved silently on) 

The blr the fruit, and the seed in its season: 

I shall be remembered by what I have done. 

"I need not be missed, if another succeed me 

To reap down those fields which in Spring I have 
sown; 
He who ploughed and who sowed is not missed by 
the reaper; 
He is only remembered by what he has done.'' 

"And, as a refrain to this, we will endeavor heartfully 
to respond in the language of Lizzie Doten : 

'Blest spirit ! we will weep no more, 
But lay our selfishness to rest : 
Condition's laws which we respect 
Have ordered all things for the best. 
* Life's battle fought, the victory won, 
To nobler toils pass on ! pass on !' 

"It will not be my purpose to set forth in detail her 
marvelous labors in behalf of human betterment. The 
limitation of time allotted me would prevent such an un- 
dertaking, and I am not unmindful that this at once be- 
comes the labor of the brains and loving handiwork of 
her biographer. 

"You of Etna owe much to Mary S. Vanderbilt for 
what she wrought of vital helpfulness here in your midst. 
To you of Etna has fallen the honor and priceless privi- 
lege of becoming the custodians of her ashes, together 
with this granite index of their resting place. Not for 
one moment do we distrust your purpose to guard this 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 118 

sacred trust which reposes within your keeping. You 
have been faithful in the years past to other trusts, but 
these ashes and this block of granite, of so great signifi- 
cance to' the cause which you espouse, imposes upon you 
an added and much larger obligation than has heretofore 
rested upon you. You will plant here the flowers of 
loving thought fulness. You will water them, not with 
your tears of sorrow (because you are Spiritualists, and 
know the meaning of life's changes), but with the tears 
of your joy. You will give them constant growth by the 
sunshine of your smiles, for you will not fail to give 
love's sweet smile as you look upon this spot, even though 
the smile be mingled with your tears. You will do far 
more than this. You will tell the story of Mary S. 
Vanderbilt's life and labors to your children, for even 
unborn generations must in turn not be allowed to forget. 

"Enduring as is this block of granite, time's relentless 
teeth will disintegrate its present solidity and reduce it all 
to common dust. It is for you to teach your children to 
love her, and also to impress them to teach their children 
to keep green and fresh this cherished memory. You 
should forget none whose loving labor has become your 
benefactor. 

"Dear Mrs. Vanderbilt loved you. She also dearly loved 
Etna. The ashes of her earthly temple are here; this 
granite marks their resting place, because of her love for 
you and for Etna. Even when her spirit pulsated in the 
physical body, racked with pain, she tenderly thought of 
you and dear Etna Camp. It is because of her thought 
of you, in the most trying hour of her human life, that 
we are today gathered about this spot, forever made 
sacred by these ashes and this granite monument. Had 
it not been for her love for you and Etna and your love 
for her, which she so richly merits from you, this block 
of granite would have forever slept in its native soil. It 
was love that found it. It was love that brought it here. 



114 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

It must in all future time be love, and love alone, which 
will keep alive that great thing for which it now stands 
within your loving keeping. 

"And not to you of Etna alone is given the privilege 
of extending to her, memory, love and gratitude. While 
Mary S. Vanderbilt labored for you and with you, no 
less was her loving service bestowed upon peoples remote 
from this place. She labored everywhere where time and 
circumstances permitted, and with that same unselfish 
devotion which so pre-eminently characterized her efforts 
in your midst. Nor was her endeavor to aid humanity 
confined even to America, for where the Atlantic waves 
beat against their thither shores her voice was fearlessly 
and cheerfully raised in defense of Spiritualism. 

"Large as is this audience, it is but a handful to that 
vest multitude in both America and Europe, whose 
thoughts of gratitude for her service now, this moment, 
are centered upon this place and this occasion. Through- 
out this broad world her name is a household word among 
Spiritualists and lovers of religious and mental freedom. 
The people knew and loved her. Like many another, we 
knew her to be — 

'Light and shade by turns, 
But Love always.' 

"We would not fail, upon this occasion, to make men- 
tion of Mrs. Vanderbilt's most sacred precincts of life's 
functioning, the home circle and close friendship's rela- 
tions. Strong and helpful in public life, where she came 
in touch with vast throngs several times almost every 
week and for many years, her greatest and truest worth 
was most vitally felt by those who knew her as the gen- 
eral public could not know her. Here her high develop- 
ment of mediumship was best known and appreciated at 
its real and true vahie. She here, in the home and at 
friendship's holy shrine, demonstrated the truth of Lord 
Lytton, who so beautifully writes : 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 115 

'There is no death ! The stars go down 
To rise upon some fairer shore; 

And bright in Heaven's jeweled crown 
They shine forevermore. 

There is no death ! The dust we tread 

Shall change beneath the summer showers 

To golden grain, or mellowed fruit, 
Or rainbow-tinted flowers. 

'And ever near us, though unseen, 

The dear immortal spirits tread, 
For all the boundless universe 

Is life — There are no dead/ 



"To her dear husband, Mr. Vanderbilt, and to her 
closest and most cherished friends, must come with 
especial force the truth of Longfellow: 

'With a slow and noiseless footstep 

Comes that messenger divine; 
Takes the vacant chair beside me, 

Lays her gentle hand in mine. 

'And she sits and gazes at me 

With those deep and tender eyes; 
Like the stars, so still and saint-like, 
Looking downward from the skies.' 

"And so, Mary S. Vanderbilt has lived, loved, and been 
loved by a host of souls. No loss, no sorrow, nothing 
will, or can, take away that joy. This, all this, was hers. 
This, all this, is hers now. This was and is her supreme 
heritage. With this divine truth she is crowned, a glory 
which, from her earliest days, she wore even as the 
morning wears the sunrise. 



116 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

"Love is not a perishing bow upon our poor, fleeting, 
imaginary heavens. Love is not a mere dream — a dream 
within a perplexing dream — nor is it a vain image, transi- 
tory as the traveling shadow of a cloud- wave. 

"Life without loving service is slightly, if anything, 
more than mere existence. Life without loving service 
fails to linger in the memory of mankind; it fails to 
make an impress upon the times. Life with loving service 
is that which is loveliest and most of all things enduring. 
It is an eternal flame, an enduring facet, the beauty of 
all beauty. Such a life whispers help into every listening 
ear; it is a dancing flame, a beacon light, dispelling dark- 
ness, and it floods all gloomy states of life with a sure 
and certain emancipation from all distresses. 

"Mary S.' Vanderbilt, our teacher, our leader, our in- 
spiration, the wife, the true and highly valued friend, has 
moved out to pitch her tent not far away. In the deepest 
and truest of all senses, we know that she remains with 
all whom she used to love and serve. We feel her pres- 
ence, we will still be amenable to her high and holy in- 
spiration, we will endeavor, as best we may, to sense her 
presence and helpfulness, knowing and fully realizing 
that we shall again hear her voice, again clasp her hand, 
and again see her face to face, 'When death shall stoop 
to kiss our feet at sunrise in the morning/ " 

The services concluded with a benediction by Mr. Wig- 
gin. Then the cornetist sweetly sounded "taps," and the 
star spangled banner, which during the services had been 
lowered to half-mast, was raised to the top. 

During the services every member of Etna Association 
wore a white ribbon, the insignia of spirit-return, and as 
"taps" sounded, all present walked silently up to the 
enclosure and each placed a flower for remembrance. 

It was an impressive sight; old and young all alike 
eager to do honor to their loved friend. Mr. E. W. Van- 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT 117 

derbilt, Miss Harriet Scannell (Mrs. Vanderbilt's sister), 
Mr. Warren R. Fales, and Mrs. Clara Edwards, secretary 
of Lake Pleasant Camp, were in a group just at the en- 
trance to the monument, while the entire park was filled 
with friends. 

All throughout the services the large audience listened 
with rapt attention to the speakers. The board of di- 
rectors had spared no pains to make the day one to be 
remembered in the annals of the Camp. 

Everyone was pleased that the clouds, which had hung 
over Etna during the week, with attendant rain, had dis- 
persed. Even Nature had wept in sympathy with the 
sorrow of the people, but with the dawning of the day 
of September 4, the sun in all its glory rose to gladden 
us all, so we could see a symbol of the work yet to be 
done at Etna. Mrs. Vanderbilt is not there in the phys- 
ical, but we know that her spirit still is interested in the 
welfare of the Camp, and will inspire others to carry 
forward the work so well begun. 

Silently the crowds assembled for the services dis- 
persed, and the memorable day at Etna drew to a close. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Lecture Delivered by 
REV. MARY S. VANDERBILT 

At Unity Hall, Hartford, Conn., Sunday, Feb. 4, 1912 

Under the Auspices of the 

Connecticut State Spiritualists' Association 

Subjects Given By Persons in the Audience 

"The Origin of Man" 

"What Is the Spiritualist's Idea of Christ" 

"Are Spiritualists Living Up to the Knowledge 

of Spiritualism?" 
"Lives Made Miserable by Others" 

The first subject that touches us and seems to fill us 
with a thought of infinitude is that subject, "The Origin 
of Man." Turning our attention back to the very be- 
ginning of history, to the very first investigation along 
the line of the origin of man, we find that even at the 
present day, no scientist or no illumination of the world 
has proven to us the first origin of man. 

Man, as far as he is considered today, is a trinity in- 
deed. There is a soul, the spirit and the body. The body 
represents to us the mighty temple, imbued by the spirit, 
that it may convey as far as possible the outward under- 
standing of man's spiritual nature. We find that our 

118 



LECTURE 119 

body has come up through a long line of numerous cells 
of matter in its first formative principle. We can almost 
turn our attention back to the cosmic principle of life, 
when there was naught in this great world of ours, except 
three great principles. Those principles were Matter and 
Force, and they were to a certain extent correlated to- 
gether by the infinite power of spirit. 

Spirit always has been the manifestation of life. When 
you take the power of spirit from matter, matter is inert 
or dead. Now we find for a time these three great prin- 
ciples working in your universe — Matter, Spirit and 
Force. What is Matter? Matter is that principle, or 
that energy, out of which all organic bodies are com- 
posed. Force is the medium between Matter and Spirit. 
Spirit is that all-pervading substance that has existed for 
all time. Now we find that there came a law when there 
seemed to be propelled into this cosmic universe of ours, 
the might power of heat, and following that there came 
the principle of light. Now we have the five principles 
— Spirit, Force, Matter, Heat, and Light, and we find 
that the greater force that is expended in any process of 
evolution causes a greater amount of matter to assume 
certain forms; first we found them consisting of certain 
cells in the great arcana of the evolution of forces, and 
secondly we find that we have the caves where the cave- 
men dwelt; then the sense of law and beauty, and a face 
turned from the sod — some of us call it the origin of 
things; some of us evolution, and others call it God. 

Nevertheless, we find that these wonderful elements 
or principles of nature continue to build, and the more 
cells they build the more harmonious relationship between 
these cells, and consequently other cells are formed, until 
we have the animal scale of existence; and then we find 
out of that there has come the wonderful power of a 
physical and intellectual nation, as the human race, or 
the human kingdom. All of this stands upon nature's 
broad vista. We find that yonder fish may have a certain 



120 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

amount of instinct, so that it does not always pick the 
hook that is thrown into the brook by the fisherman. We 
find that the animals have a certain instinct of protection 
for themselves. We find that man stands out superior 
to all these, because he has powers beyond instinct — he 
has something beyond these things, and the question is: 
What is the difference and what is this that makes man 
the living thriving creature that he is, with the mighty 
brain power that he portrays through the wonderful mind 
that is continually developing with the wonderful power? 
Call it psychic, or spiritual, but it is the real man, the real 
ego, that stands behind your body, and when we begin 
to reach this realm, we begin to gain the realm of spiritual 
things, and consequently we find — what ? That the origin 
of the physical man began away back in the time we have 
previously told you of, but the origin of the soul of man 
has never had a beginning, and consequently will never 
have an ending. That the physical body has simply been 
built up for the expression of this spiritual man. 

Will you tell me that the soul is a result of bodily pow- 
ers? I tell you that is no such thing. Man's soul has 
existed somewhere and in some form before the growth 
of everything that is expressing the evolution of nature. 
Look with me a moment at these pinks upon the table, 
and you find they express what? They express the 
mighty scintillating power of the sun-ray. Less than 
fifty years ago, if you asked a minister on any public plat- 
form what caused the color of one to be pink and the 
other white, he would tell you they were painted by the 
finger of Almighty God, but we have grown; we have 
studied theology, we have studied all the sciences of the 
day and hour, and we have found the finger of God ex- 
pressed in the pink is the gleam of a sunbeam that has 
produced their colors. 

We find there are certain elements in nature, and 
whether flowers or human beings, gather to ourselves 
those things that are part of our existence and those 



LECTURE 121 

things that will help us unfold and germinate. When we 
began to find this, there was a knock at the door of nature 
and man found that thousands and thousands of years of 
expression lay dormant in Mother Nature, and we began 
to feel again that God was not the personal being, seated 
upon a throne, who looked at us one day in anger, and 
the next in love, but that everything was originated in 
the great economy of the world and was eternally grow- 
ing, and we began to find out that the old economic idea 
of the origin of man, the old idea of things, was not true, 
and in its place we have put the great hypothesis of the 
physical unfoldment and development of man; and it is 
the hypothesis that will stand the ultimate triumph of 
truth. It is the only hypothesis that teaches us that we 
are not only spiritual tomorrow and living out in some 
other realm, but we are spirits today, and that we can 
touch humanity one mile, ten miles or one thousand miles 
away from us, if we understand the spiritual law govern- 
ing our being, and this is the mighty philosophy of the 
spirit and we no longer feel that we do not live hereafter, 
singing psalms and having complete peace and rest. There 
is no rest, unless that rest is a continual rest of evolution 
from the lower to the higher, and the work that is har- 
monious and is closely related to spirit, will be the work 
that we have been accustomed to do while journeying 
here in the physical form. 

You ask me what the Spiritualist's idea of Christ is. 
The Spiritualist holds it as the closest thought. We do not 
place him as a savior of the world, in the sense that you 
and I are to be saved by his blood, but he is our elder 
brother. He was, as we said this afternoon, a great 
Socialist teacher, a great leader whom the spirit world 
had clothed with a physical body, that he might bring his 
teachings, the teachings of the higher forces of the spin 
itual world to a waiting people. 

Men and women had prayed for a messiah, a messiah 
simply for bodily wants, a messiah simply for the material 



122 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

things of life, but the great spirit world sent a messiah, a 
savior of man's spiritual nature, and when his teachings 
were rightly understood and rightly interpreted, we had 
a spiritual philosophy exactly as the Spiritualists are 
preaching today from every rostrum in our country where 
Spiritualism is taught. We have found that if ever the 
Master gave anything to the world he put the everlasting 
label of truth upon mediumship, because it always was 
the mediumship of the Master that took precedence of all 
other things connected' with him, as far as cults can fol- 
low him are concerned. 

Look with me just for a moment to the story of the 
Master, when Jerusalem would not take his teachings 
unto itself, and when seemingly outside of a very few, 
except his twelve disciples, he had no one that understood 
him. With Spiritualism surely as many people are as 
cautious, and they say: 

"Mrs. Vanderbilt, I would like to go to your spiritual 
meeting; I would like to know what your philosophy is; 
but you know I am just a little afraid of it, and some of 
my fellow Church members might hear of it ; and then I 
live on such a fashionable avenue, and Spiritualism is not 
popular." 

So in the days of the Master. Nicodemus, the teacher, 
felt in his soul there was something that linked himself 
with the mighty truth of the Master, but he waited until 
night time and then he made his visit after truth. Look 
at me for a moment while I tell you the story that is 
known to every Bible student in the country, the story of 
the woman at the well of Samaria. It was not the spir- 
itual teaching; it was not the sermon on the Mount, but 
it was the men and women toiling with bleeding feet, 
whose physical bodies were going to decay ; the blind men 
and women who followed the Master, to touch the hem 
of his garment, and thus he turned and healed them. 
Those are the dead letters that are going down the cor- 
ridors of time. It is not the belief in Jesus, as given to 



LECTURE 123 

you by the theological teachings of the religion called 
Christianity. Look with me for a moment, when at last 
he had fulfilled his work, when he knew that no longer 
would he be able to hold himself in his physical body; 
the cry of the enemy about him had become so great that 
then it was, he was made miserable by others. The 
Master's life was made miserable by others, a man as 
peaceful as the blue lake of Gallilee, in whose waters his 
disciples fished. An individual more human and more 
divine than any other individual that has ever touched 
the shores of time, and still in choosing his disciples he 
was not far-sighted enough to see that one of the twelve 
would betray him, and so in the human life today there 
is not any of us can find twelve people that some one of 
them will not betray us and make our lives miserable. 

After Judas had come, in the character of Judas 
Iscariot, he knew if the great power of gold could be 
played on the sensibilities of that man, he knew that his 
principles were not strong enough to withhold the won- 
derful power of a few pieces of silver, and he knew if 
anyone told of the inner teachings of his life, if anyone 
went back on him, it would be a man like Judas, and we 
find that Judas did betray him, and in that hour when he 
was taken before the tribunal, and they asked why they 
had brought him there, and they said, now if you have any 
power, tell us who did this thing and you shall go free. 
Oh, but in that mighty hour of agony, who has not lived 
their hour of agony, when some friend has proved treach- 
erous and a traitor, and when some of our motives have 
been misconstrued and so turned about that we hardly 
recognize ourselves and we have stood dumb and mute 
before the accuser and slanderer, when we knew we were 
innocent. We had no redress ; we knew we were inno- 
cent. So in the hour the Master stood,, in the face of the 
enemy, with not a controlling voice. 

Like the mediums in Modern Spiritualism, people will 
say to them: "I will stand by you," and other people 



124 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

have the same thing said to them : "If any trouble comes 
I will uphold you, and I will show them how I appreciate 
the comfort you have brought to me." But when you 
have been in your hour of Gethsemane, you have for- 
gotten it and, like in the case of Jesus, they have stood 
still and denied us, and so we find today in our Modern 
Spiritualism, that men and women come and demand of 
the mediums the things they want to know. If they are 
told 101 things that are just as true as the one thing they 
wanted to know, and they are proven to be true, they will 
cast aside the 101, just because they did not receive just 
the one they wanted ; and so if there has been a manifesta- 
tion of the Nazarene that manifestation belongs to Mod- 
ern Spiritualism, and even though at home they hold com- 
munion with their souls, and whether they are in the 
work before the world, they can say "Christ is my elder 
brother ; Christ is my pattern ; Christ is the medium 
whose mediumship I long to have my life lighted by." 

That is the divine principle of living, and then we say 
the Master forgave his enemies, so we forgive ours. The 
Master said : "I did not come to convert the good, or the 
godly, but the ungodly," and he allowed the Pharisees to 
judge who were the ungodly; and so today in the ranks 
of Modern Spiritualism we say you come into our midst 
and if it is impossible and conditions are right, perhaps 
someone there will give you a message that will prove the 
individuality of your loved ones. 

Modern Spiritualism says to you: The Master said 
love one another. And so we take their motto; it is a 
divine principle. Then we find the great field of Social- 
ism opening before us, and we see there is no text, or 
creed, or dogma needed, but that one that is as old as 
time itself, that was spoken by the blue river of the Nile; 
the wonderful text that was spoken by the Ganges long 
before Buddha was born ; the mighty text that was spoken 
by Zoriaster while the fire burned; the mighty text that 
was written when Confucius was compiling their sacred 



LECTURE 125 

Bible for unborn generations; the text that again fell 
from the illuminated lips of the Master, when he said : 
Do unto others that they shpuld do unto you. 

The only text that is needed in this world is to make 
your religion true; to practice it every day and every 
hour of our lives, and then we would not feel as if we 
wanted to make some one miserable, because they are 
better favored in the world than we are, or because we 
are jealous. But instead of that we will be glad for every 
upliftment that comes to every human being. When we 
meet one of our neighbors with a better dress on than 
ours, we will not say her husband does not get any more 
money than mine ; if a man took his family to the theater 
and we felt that we could not take our family, and say, 
we did not get a chance to get at the cash box. We 
would not say those things. We would say: I am glad 
Mrs. So-and-So has such a pretty gown ; I am glad they 
have found the ways and means; I am glad that my 
brother man has a better position than I have. Perhaps 
some time I too will stand on another round of the lad- 
der and I will be able to do what he is doing, and if we 
are in some organization — an organization of Spiritualists, 
for instance — and someone is elected president or secre- 
tary, we will not go behind his back and say he is no 
person for such a position; that he will make no kind of 
a president — but we will say we are going to work with 
him hand in hand for his success ; we are going to show 
to mankind and womankind the glorious blessing of 
brotherhood. Then, if we meet in some of the club rooms 
of our city, and we study political science, and we happen 
to have some political lines stronger than the fellow next 
to us, and we find there is something in someone that will 
make him a good statesman, we are not going to pull him 
down; and if he had made a mistake in life, we are not 
going to proclaim it to the world ; but we are going to say 
he is more of a man for the mistake he has made, and 
we are going to send him to Washington, because we 



126 MARY S. VANDERBILT 

know he is going to make good. And instead of talking 
scandal, until our newspapers are filled with filth, we are 
going to look for the good in humanity, and we are going 
to forget there are enemies in any households who have 
made the tears flow, and realize, as Spiritualists, realize 
as students in the great law of human endeavor, that each 
and every one of us are going to be known as we really 
are, and we are not going to receive a reward because we 
have received something, but because we have done some- 
thing. 

We are not going to be asked whether we are Catholic, 
Spiritualist or New Thought. We are going to be asked 
what our deeds are and whether it be Robert G. Ingersoll, 
Heber Newton, or Phillips Brooks, we are going to find 
that they have their place there — and we are going to be 
glad to know that in the world of soul as well as here we 
are to live and unfold. We are going to find the prin- 
ciples of unfoldment, and we are going to be angels to- 
day, and then we are going to carry angelhood out into 
the aeons of eternity. 

Then, we are going to live as we should, and we are 
going to progress here, now and always, because we be- 
gin to realize the divine truth — that whatever the origin 
of life, that eternal progression is the destiny of man. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 1 6066 
(724)779-2111 



